March 15: The Gender Outlaw

Kate Bornstein, a transsexual writer, actor and television personality who is a self-described “gender terrorist,” was born a male in Neptune, New Jersey on this date in 1948. Bornstein underwent sex-reassignment surgeries in 1985-86 and has written six books since, including Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us (1994); My Gender Workbook: How to Become a Real Man, a Real Woman, the Real You, or Something Else Entirely (1997), and Hello Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws (2006). She has also toured with several one-woman/man/whatever plays on gender issues. “The women’s movement has certainly looked at how the cultural role of ‘woman’ has limited women,” Bornstein says. “And the men’s movement has looked at how the cultural role of ‘man’ has limited men. But very few people have looked at how the system of having only men and only women has limited all of us.” Bornstein describes maintaining a fluid gender identity as a path to enlightenment. “[T]o unattach yourself from the perks of both genders” is similar to meditation, she says, and “some people might find it easier to explore the path of gender than to explore the path of meditation.” “I’m not a man. I’m not a woman. I’m at the next stage, which is in a third space that includes man, woman and lots of other genders.” — Kate Bornstein, interviewed at EnlightenNext Magazine