Kate Bornstein

Kate Bornstein
Kate Bornstein at Babeland in Seattle in December 2010
Born	March 15, 1948 (1948-03-15) Neptune City, New Jersey, U.S.
Residence	New York City, New York
Occupation	Performance artist
Religion	Jewish
Website
katebornstein.typepad.com

Kate Bornstein (born March 15, 1948) is a Jewish-American author, playwright, performance artist, and gender theorist.

Biography

Born in Neptune City, New Jersey, Bornstein studied Theater Arts with John Emigh and Jim Barnhill at Brown University (Class of '69). Bornstein joined the Church of Scientology but later became disillusioned and formally left the movement in 1981. Bornstein's antagonism toward Scientology and public split from the church have had personal consequences; Bornstein's daughter, herself a Scientologist, no longer has any contact with Bornstein per Scientology's policies. According to Kate's book 'Gender Outlaw', Kate was raised a Conservative Jew.

Bornstein never felt comfortable with the belief of the day: that all trans women are "women trapped in men's bodies". Bornstein did not identify as a man, but the only other option of the day was to be a woman, a reflection of the gender binary, which required people to identify according to only two available genders. Another block in Bornstein's path was the fact that Bornstein was attracted to women. Bornstein had sex reassignment surgery in 1986.

Bornstein settled into the lesbian community in San Francisco, and wrote art reviews for the G&L paper, The Bay Area Reporter. Over the next few years, Bornstein began to identify as neither a man nor a woman. This catapulted Bornstein back to performing, creating several performance pieces, some of them one-person shows. It was the only way Bornstein knew how to communicate life's paradoxes.

Bornstein also teaches workshops and has published several gender theory books, and a novel. Hello Cruel World, was written to derail teens, freaks, and other outlaws from committing suicide. "Do whatever it takes to make your life more worth living," Bornstein writes, "just don't be mean." As of 2006, Bornstein was writing an autobiography.

Bornstein's partner is Barbara Carrellas, and they live in New York City.

Bornstein's most recent book is a collaboration with S. Bear Bergman entitled Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation.

Books

• Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us 1994, ISBN 0-679-75701-5
• Nearly Roadkill: An Infobahn Erotic Adventure (Novel, co-authored with Caitlin Sullivan), 1996, ISBN 1-85242-418-4
• My Gender Workbook: How to Become a Real Man, a Real Woman, the Real You, or Something Else Entirely 1997, ISBN 0-415-91673-9 (paperback) ISBN 0-415-91672-0 (hardcover)
• Hello Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws, 2006, ISBN 1-58322-720-2 (note: titled Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Teen Suicide in the UK)
• Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation, co-edited with S. Bear Bergman, 2010, ISBN 9781580053082

Performance Pieces

• Kate Bornstein Is a Queer and Pleasant Danger
• The Opposite Sex Is Neither
• Virtually Yours
• Hidden: A Gender
• Strangers in Paradox
• y2kate: gender virus 2000
• Hard Candy

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

External links

• Kate Bornstein's Blog for Teens, Freaks, and Other Outlaws
• Kate Bornstein's Speaking & Performance Touring Schedule
• tootallblondes.com Website of Kate Bornstein and Barbara Carrellas
• An Interview with Kate Bornstein and S. Bear Bergman in Herizons, 2011
• An Interview with Kate Bornstein on P.O.V.
• Official website of Hello Cruel World—Kate's latest book (2006)
• Kate Bornstein's Myspace profile
• Kate Bornstein interview on Eros-Zine.com
• Lecture given by Kate Bornstein on 01/03/2007