| Kate Bornstein | |
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Kate Bornstein at Babeland in Seattle in December 2010 |
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| Born | March 15, 1948 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.
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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.[1] 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[2].
Bornstein's partner is Barbara Carrellas, and they live in New York City.[3]
Bornstein's most recent book is a collaboration with S. Bear Bergman entitled Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation.[4]