Kate Bornstein
Author of Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us
About the Author
Kate Bornstein is a performance artist, playwright, and advocate for teens, freaks, and other outlaws. She has authored several award-winning books, including Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us, My Gender Workbook, and Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks, show more and Other Outlaws. Kate lives in New York City with her girlfriend, three cats, two dogs, and a turtle. show less
Works by Kate Bornstein
My Gender Workbook: How to Become a Real Man, a Real Woman, the Real You, or Something Else Entirely (1997) 684 copies, 7 reviews
Hello Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks, and Other Outlaws (2006) 474 copies, 15 reviews
My New Gender Workbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Achieving World Peace Through Gender Anarchy and Sex Positivity (1997) 192 copies, 1 review
Taking the Last Drag 4 copies
Associated Works
A Fictional History of the United States with Huge Chunks Missing (2006) — Contributor — 76 copies, 2 reviews
It's So You: 35 Women Write About Personal Expression Through Fashion and Style (2007) — Contributor — 56 copies, 2 reviews
We Can Do Better Than This: 35 Voices on the Future of LGBTQ+ Rights (2021) — Contributor — 47 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Bornstein, Kate
- Legal name
- Bornstein, Katherine Vandam
- Birthdate
- 1948-03-15
- Gender
- non-binary
- Education
- Brown University (BA|1969)
- Occupations
- writer
playwright
performance artist
Scientology ship crew - Relationships
- Carrellas, Barbara (partner)
- Short biography
- Kate was born outside of Fargo, North Dakota in a log cabin ze helped hir parents build. Hir father was a Lutheran minister, and hir mother was Miss Betty Crocker, 1939. Kate has lived in the queer ghettos of Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle. Ze currently lives with hir partner--sex pioneer, writer and performance artist Barbara Carrellas--in New York City, along with their two pugs, two cats, two turtles, and a thriving well-populated ant farm.
In 1986, Bornstein identified as gender non-conforming, saying "I don't call myself a woman, and I know I'm not a man."
Per their website, Bornstein now (2021) identifies as nonbinary and uses the pronouns they/them or she/her. - Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Neptune City, New Jersey, USA
- Places of residence
- New York, New York, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
Hello Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws by Kate Bornstein
Not just for teens, freaks, and other outlaws - I think this book could be life-saving for anyone thinking about suicide. Even if you don't need it now, read it anyways: you or someone you know might need it later. Unlike a lot of other suicide prevention, this book really takes a harm reduction approach in that its list of alternatives considers anything that isn't suicide and isn't "being mean" to be better than suicide. Its setup as a numbered list of alternatives makes it especially show more useful, as opposed to something like a list of reasons to live, these are all literally things you can do, right now, instead of killing yourself. This book saved my life, so I can definitely say it worked for me. show less
Hello Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws by Kate Bornstein
I love the idea of this book, and found it generally sensitive to the diversity of its intended readership. Where Bornstein seemed to have blindspots were with sex and religion. She recommends sex as a solution in quite a few of her alternatives, and when addressing people whose expression of sexuality is a cause of their oppression I get that, but it leaves behind those who identify as asexual, or who just aren't interested in it for now. While promoting the diversity of religious show more expression available over any "one true faith", Bornstein had no word to say for those who hold an atheistic position. It's a shame, as with just a few tweeks these omissions could have been easily rectified. However, I'm focusing on the lapses in an otherwise thoughtful and amusingly written book about being kind to yourself, giving yourself a break, and not putting up with any shit, others' or your own. show less
Well no one can accuse Bornstein of hiding anything. Even by memoirist standards Kate is an over-sharer. Luckily she has some great stories.
I am fascinated by Scientology. So her experience in the org, particularly in SeaOrg, is riveting. As a salesperson she enjoyed a pretty cushy ride, until she didn't. In the end the org cost her her daughter (she talks about this in the first few pages, not a spoiler) and separated her from beloved family for many years. It also validated her obsessive show more behaviors, valued her skill at performative storytelling (also known as lying or using alternative facts), and provided her with a lot of opportunities to have random sex.
Also fascinating was Kate's journey to her current identity as a nonbinary trans lesbian. Its been quite a road. Her interactions with radical cis lesbians, especially butch lesbians, were really instructive. I know of course how crummy the LGBT establishment has historically been (and mostly still is) to trans women. there has been a lot written and discussed about this in the past few years, but the stories of Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson alone tell the story. Kate's story is slightly different, perhaps because she is upper middle class and white, but still saddening.
The most disturbing part of this is the part that deals with Kate the masochist and cutter. She mostly seems to deal well with her borderline personality disorder, but she is an old woman who still cuts and it is implied enjoys when others cut her. (Actually, she said that she got off on being carved. No implication. There was detail. What is not clear if she outgrew the desire and practice or if she still enjoys being sliced up.) That is not okay, and my heart cries for her because she has normalized and accepted her self harm and invited cruelty. I am glad she triumphed over suicidal ideation, alcoholism, and other challenges, but she still has work to do.
At times when reading this I felt like a peeping tom, but I know in my heart she wants me to peep. An interesting bio all in all, honest, edifying, and a quick read. show less
I am fascinated by Scientology. So her experience in the org, particularly in SeaOrg, is riveting. As a salesperson she enjoyed a pretty cushy ride, until she didn't. In the end the org cost her her daughter (she talks about this in the first few pages, not a spoiler) and separated her from beloved family for many years. It also validated her obsessive show more behaviors, valued her skill at performative storytelling (also known as lying or using alternative facts), and provided her with a lot of opportunities to have random sex.
Also fascinating was Kate's journey to her current identity as a nonbinary trans lesbian. Its been quite a road. Her interactions with radical cis lesbians, especially butch lesbians, were really instructive. I know of course how crummy the LGBT establishment has historically been (and mostly still is) to trans women. there has been a lot written and discussed about this in the past few years, but the stories of Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson alone tell the story. Kate's story is slightly different, perhaps because she is upper middle class and white, but still saddening.
The most disturbing part of this is the part that deals with Kate the masochist and cutter. She mostly seems to deal well with her borderline personality disorder, but she is an old woman who still cuts and it is implied enjoys when others cut her. (Actually, she said that she got off on being carved. No implication. There was detail. What is not clear if she outgrew the desire and practice or if she still enjoys being sliced up.) That is not okay, and my heart cries for her because she has normalized and accepted her self harm and invited cruelty. I am glad she triumphed over suicidal ideation, alcoholism, and other challenges, but she still has work to do.
At times when reading this I felt like a peeping tom, but I know in my heart she wants me to peep. An interesting bio all in all, honest, edifying, and a quick read. show less
A Queer and Pleasant Danger: The true story of a nice Jewish boy who joins the Church of Scientology, and leaves twelve years later to become the lovely lady she is today by Kate Bornstein
So, this is a memoir by lesbian trans person ex-scientologist kinky nerd Kate Bornstein who is now like, my most favoritest person ever. Like, just having one of those labels maybe kinda sorta applying to you would mean that I would find you fascinating, but all of them? Goddamn. I want to be her best friend. I want her to marry my mom!
This book is more about being an ex-scientologist than anything else. The CoS have declared her a Suppressive Person, see, and her ex-wife, daughter and show more grandchildren have shunned her. Not for being a lesbian, or trans, or kinky, or uh... a nerd, but for doing what I thought was completely reasonable behavior. But it's the Church of Scientology, so whatareyagonnado. Write a book, I guess!
The tone is unrepentantly cheery, which can either grate or charm, depending on the reader. I liked it.
Also, she and her girlfriend call each other imzadi.
NERD. (though when I was writing this I asked my boyfriend what was that word? in star trek? that was a term of endearment? because I had forgotten and he knew immediately, haha NERD... i mean... imzadi) show less
This book is more about being an ex-scientologist than anything else. The CoS have declared her a Suppressive Person, see, and her ex-wife, daughter and show more grandchildren have shunned her. Not for being a lesbian, or trans, or kinky, or uh... a nerd, but for doing what I thought was completely reasonable behavior. But it's the Church of Scientology, so whatareyagonnado. Write a book, I guess!
The tone is unrepentantly cheery, which can either grate or charm, depending on the reader. I liked it.
Also, she and her girlfriend call each other imzadi.
NERD. (though when I was writing this I asked my boyfriend what was that word? in star trek? that was a term of endearment? because I had forgotten and he knew immediately, haha NERD... i mean... imzadi) show less
Lists
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 13
- Also by
- 14
- Members
- 3,860
- Popularity
- #6,568
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 71
- ISBNs
- 42
- Languages
- 3
- Favorited
- 20