Minnie-Bruce Pratt leaves behind a remarkable legacy as a writer and scholar/activist. She spoke to a range of transformative justice issues, with a voice rooted in her Alabama upbringing. She was deeply aware of the salience of difference in each situation. She examined lives shaped by multiple oppressions, touched by conflicting histories, and narrated by people who had often been silenced. Crafting poetry, essays and literary reflections, Pratt was ahead of her time in truly visionary ways. In 1975, she came out as Lesbian in North Carolina and consequently lost custody of her two sons. In “Crime Against Nature,” she reflects on this fracturing experience. She writes about sodomy laws from within the twilight consciousness of both white motherhood and Lesbian ethics. Her essay collection “S/He” was published in 1995, opening conversations that many in Lesbian and Gay circles, not to mention the heterosexist mainstream, were not yet prepared to have. Teasing out daily life, “S/He” confronts normativity as it slips into feminist and LGBTQ communities and their shaping of sex, desire and gender expression. Short essays such as “Husband” or “Green Scarf” pointedly reveal the contours of gendered realities. They make us aware of rigidities within lesbian and gay communities who portray trans, nonbinary and queer identities as devoid of feminist agency or potential. Pratt continued to discern queering possibilities by addressing difficult questions about intimacy, political consciousness and the microphysics of power. The “Dirt She Ate” was published in 2003 to great acclaim and it was recognized with the 2005 Lambda Literary Award. She devoted much time to advocate on behalf of trans of color populations over the last 15 years of her life. She joined her life-partner, the late Leslie Feinberg, for a campaign to raise attention about Cece McDonald’s plight. Sentenced to 41 months in prison in 2012, McDonald is an African American trans activist who defended herself against a transphobic and racist attack in the streets of Minneapolis. Pratt supported Feinberg in acts of civil disobedience as they organized around the slogan Free Cece McDonald. Above all, it was her piercing sensibility that allowed Minnie-Bruce Pratt to touch people in transformative ways. Readers, comrades, students and friends shall remember Pratt’s expansive language, careful listening and honest praxis.

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