S. Bear Bergman

In 1995, Kate Bornstein wrote Gender Outlaw. It was a book about her own M to F transition, and a treatise on gender. It helped a lot of trans people get through their lives. Now, 15 years later, she and co-author/editor Bergman have produced a collection of essays, comics and poems, all from members of the trans community. While the average person thinks of the trans community as made up of drag queens and people who surgically and hormonally transition from one set of genitals to the show more other, it’s not nearly as cut and dried as that. This book proves something I’ve believed for many years- that gender is not binary but a continuum, and that a person need not always occupy the same spot on that continuum, that they can, if society allows, dance up and down the scale. But society usually doesn’t allow.

And that is one of the beauties of this book: it shows how members of the trans community have made their way through life; their problems, their solutions, the abuse they’ve endured, the joys and love they cherish. And it shows the incredible variety of genders that exist-a trans-man who gives birth, a ciswoman who performs as a drag queen, an intersex, people who do not consider themselves male or female and that general society has no pronouns for.

The problems that people in the trans community face are numerous, from getting medical care to legal standing to just using a public bathroom or going to the gym. I hope that this book gets a huge circulation and goes a long ways towards getting society to understand and accept trans people and make the changes that need to be made. show less

Such a tender and encouraging book. Reading this was akin to wandering around a garden and noticing all the small and unexpected miracles waiting everywhere, even in places you thought you knew.

Several times, I thought of how empowering one chapter or another would be for a sibling or a friend, and while I learned something from every chapter, chapters 3 (How to Keep Firmly and Everlastingly in Mind That Doing Nothing Isn't Neutral), 6 (How to Love Someone with Your Words, Actions, and show more Priorities (in Addition to Your Feelings, Which I'm Sure Are Very Nice)), and 16 (How to Keep Going When You Just Want More Than Anything to Stop, for G-d's Sake) were especially meaningful.

This is the kind of the book I want to own, to highlight and scribble in, to dog-ear and sticky tab, so when I'm feeling lost or frustrated or angry or alone, I have a roadmap not just to kind and hopeful advice, but a reminder of how that advice has touched and taught me, of who I wanted to be when I read it last. show less

I was incredibly excited when I discovered, completely by accident, the upcoming publication of Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation, edited by Kate Bornstein and S. Bear Bergman, both of whom are transgender trailblazers and activists. Bornstein wrote Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us in 1994 and the book made a huge impact on me when I read it a few years ago. I wasn't even aware that the collection Gender Outlaws was even in the works until I happened to spy its eye-catching show more cover on a Seal Press' list of books available for review. I requested a copy and was absolutely thrilled when it arrived in the mail. Released in 2010, Gender Outlaws was published sixteen years after Gender Outlaw, hence the book's subtitle, The Next Generation (occasionally referred to as "genderation" in the text.)

Gender Outlaws collects fifty-five short works by fifty-seven creators, including Bornstein and Bergman. The contributions are roughly divided into five vaguely thematic groupings: Part One, "Do I look like an outlaw to you." Part Two, "Being reconfigured is not the same as being reimagined." Part Three, "...which is why I'm as cute as I happen to be." Part Four, "It might not be a picnic, but there's a great buffet." and Part Five, "And still we rise." Also included are acknowledgments and sections devoted to the individual contributors and editors. Each piece is rather short--none are over twenty pages long and most are only five or so pages with plenty that are even less.

Gender Outlaws contains some powerful stuff. Generally, I expect these sorts of collections to vary in quality from piece to piece, but every one of these was strong. Certainly some spoke more to me on a personal level than others, but I was able to take something away from each offering. It's difficult for me to choose a favorite (really, they all were fantastic), but probably the piece that stood out most for me was "trancension," a comic by Katie Diamond and Johnny Blazes. Some entries were amusing, some charming, some heartbreaking, some challenging, but they were all unique and worthwhile. Overall, the collection is very positive and forward thinking although it doesn't ignore the problems, issues, and challenges that trans and queer folk still face today. Happily, things have progressed since Bornstein wrote Gender Outlaw which is one of the reasons this collection was created.

What most impressed me about Gender Outlaws was the wide variety and diversity exhibited by the content and creators. More than three hundred people submitted work to be considered for the collection and Bornstein and Bergman have done a marvelous job in selecting and editing the pieces together into one book. I appreciated the different viewpoints and experiences that each contributor brought to Gender Outlaws; they didn't always agree on everything and I found that to be illuminating and valuable in and of itself. A whole spectrum of gender identity, sexualities, religions, nationalities, and more make up the list of creators. I also loved the range of work included in Gender Outlaws, everything from academic essays to creative nonfiction, poetry, transcripts, and comics. Regardless what form it takes, each entry is intensely personal and makes Gender Outlaws an absolutely fabulous collection.

Experiments in Reading show less

This book was a warm fuzzy hug, even as it sometimes stabbed me right in the chest and encouraged me to do better. A fast and engaging read, and I acted on some of the advice immediately, but I think primarily it will be useful as a reference on the shelf, when I am struggling with one of the topics the advice in this book is on.