Barbra Casbar Siperstein (November 20, 1942 – February 3, 2019), commonly known as Babs Siperstein, was an American political and

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

-rights activist. She came out as a trans woman in the late 1980s. When her wife died in 2001 she channeled the grief into activism. She served in numerous

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

political organizations including the New Jersey Stonewall Democrats,

Garden State Equality Garden State Equality is a statewide advocacy and education organization in the U.S. state of New Jersey that advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights, including same-sex marriage. History Garden State Equality was fo ...

and the

Democratic National Committee The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the governing body of the United States Democratic Party. The committee coordinates strategy to support Democratic Party candidates throughout the country for local, state, and national office, as well a ...

Eastern Caucus. She advocated for gender inclusion in

discrimination Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, relig ...

and hate crime laws in New Jersey. In 2009 she became the only openly transgender member of the

serving in various roles until 2017.

Biography

Siperstein was born November 20, 1942 to Morris and Mildred (Yanover) Siperstein and grew up in

Jersey City, New Jersey Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark. She attended

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

, where she earned a bachelor's degree, and then earned a master's of business administration in public accounting from Pace University. After college, Siperstein joined the family business, Siperstein Fords Paint Corporation, in Fords, New Jersey, where she met her wife, Carol Slonk, when Slonk joined the company as an administrative assistant. The couple had three children: a daughter, Jana Siperstein-Szucs; and two sons, Jeffrey and Jared Siperstein. Barbra Siperstein knew from early childhood that she was different, but did not fully recognize she was transgender until middle age. Siperstein told her wife that she was

in the late 1980s. For most of her life Siperstein denied to herself that she was transgender, until she eventually came out to her wife who was extremely supportive. They created ''Casbar'' as a combination of Carol's initials and Barbra's name. Carol encouraged her to be openly outwardly female, and Barbra began to transition in small steps. Barbra was openly transgender with her family, but did not come

out Out may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Out'' (1957 film), a documentary short about the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 * ''Out'' (1982 film), an American film directed by Eli Hollander * ''Out'' (2002 film), a Japanese film ba ...

publicly until around 2000, when she began her activism in earnest. She was outed by a local newspaper, and continued to transition in strides. Carol died in 2001. Barbra has said that she channeled her grief about her wife's death into her activist work. Eight years after Carol's death, Barbra changed her

Hebrew name A Hebrew name is a name of Hebrew origin. In a more narrow meaning, it is a name used by Jews only in a religious context and different from an individual's secular name for everyday use. Names with Hebrew origins, especially those from the H ...

officially to a female name after a teshuva on the status of transgender people in the

Jewish faith Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the M ...

allowed her to do so. Siperstein started her activism fully after her daughter took over her family business.

Career and activism

Prior to transitioning, Siperstein served in the Army and was a small-business owner. Siperstein advocated for marriage equality, workplace discrimination reforms, and amendments to discrimination laws in order to better protect transgender people. She also advocated for making gender equality an important part of any political LGBT agenda. She was one of 24 authors that helped write the Dallas Principles in 2009. Siperstein was President and a board member of the New Jersey Stonewall Democrats until its closure in 2013. She was also Vice President of

and Vice Chair of the

Eastern Caucus. Through those organizations, she advocated for gender inclusion in discrimination and hate crime laws in New Jersey. She was also appointed to the New Jersey Civil Union Review Commission. Siperstein had served as Deputy Vice Chair of the

New Jersey Democratic State Committee The New Jersey Democratic State Committee (NJDSC) is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in the U.S. state of New Jersey. LeRoy J. Jones Jr. is the chair and Peg Schaffer is the vice chair. Structure The NJDSC has a 13-member executive committe ...

. She was also Political Director of the Gender Rights Advocacy Association of New Jersey. In 2009, Siperstein became the first openly transgender member of the DNC, where she was appointed by then-chairman

Tim Kaine Timothy Michael Kaine (; born February 26, 1958) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the junior United States senator from Virginia since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 38th lieutenant governor of Virgini ...

. She was appointed to the Democratic National Committee's Executive Committee in 2011, where she served until October 2017, when she and several other DNC officials were demoted or removed. In the

2016 Democratic National Convention The 2016 Democratic National Convention was a presidential nominating convention, held at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from July 25 to 28, 2016. The convention gathered delegates of the Democratic Party, the majo ...

, Siperstein was a superdelegate for

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

. As of 2016, she was one of 28 openly transgender delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Siperstein contributed to the

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Death and tributes

Siperstein died of cancer on February 3, 2019, in New Brunswick, New Jersey at age 76. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy ordered that flags be lowered to half staff in honor of her death. In June 2019, Siperstein was one of the inaugural fifty American “pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes” inducted on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor within the Stonewall National Monument (SNM) in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

’s Stonewall Inn. The SNM is the first U.S. national monument dedicated to LGBTQ rights and

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

, and the wall’s unveiling was timed to take place during the 50th anniversary of the

Stonewall riots The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, or simply Stonewall) were a series of spontaneous protests by members of the gay community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of Ju ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Siperstein, Barbra Casbar 1942 births 2019 deaths Jewish American people in New Jersey politics Jewish women politicians Writers from Jersey City, New Jersey Military personnel from New Jersey Transgender women politicians Transgender women writers New Jersey Democrats LGBT people from New Jersey Transgender Jews American transgender writers American LGBT military personnel Rutgers University alumni Pace University alumni Women in New Jersey politics 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American LGBT people 21st-century American women