Most Popular Books by Kate Bornstein

This groundbreaking and inspiring collection of dozens of our most original trans voices is a “smart, sexy, and entertaining” (Jack Halberstam) exploration of gender today. Transgender narratives have made their way from the margins to the mainstream and back again, and today’s trans and nonbinary people, genderqueers, and other sex/gender radicals are writing a drastically new world into being. Edited by the original gender outlaw, Kate Bornstein, together with writer, raconteur, and theater artist S. Bear Bergman, Gender Outlaws collects and contextualizes the work of this generation''s trans and genderqueer forward thinkers—new voices from the stage, on the streets, in the workplace, in the bedroom, and on the pages and websites of the world''s most respected publications. Gender Outlaws includes essays, commentary, comic art, and conversations from a diverse group of trans-spectrum people who live and believe in barrier-breaking lives.

The stunningly original memoir of a nice Jewish boy who left the Church of Scientology to become the lovely lady she is today In the early 1970s, a boy from a Conservative Jewish family joined the Church of Scientology. In 1981, that boy officially left the movement and ultimately transitioned into a woman. A few years later, she stopped calling herself a woman—and became a famous gender outlaw. Gender theorist, performance artist, and author Kate Bornstein is set to change lives with her stunningly original memoir. Wickedly funny and disarmingly honest, this is Bornstein''s most intimate book yet, encompassing her early childhood and adolescence, college at Brown, a life in the theater, three marriages and fatherhood, the Scientology hierarchy, transsexual life, LGBTQ politics, and life on the road as a sought-after speaker. This ebook edition includes a new epilogue. Reflecting on the original publication of her book, Bornstein considers the passage of time as the changing world brings new queer realities into focus and forces Kate to confront her own aging and its effects on her health, body, and mind. She goes on to contemplate her relationship with her daughter, her relationship to Scientology, and the ever-evolving practices of seeking queer selfhood. “A singular achievement and gift to the generations of queers who consider her our Auntie, and all those who will follow.” —Lambda Literary “Breathless, passionate, and deeply honest, A Queer and Pleasant Danger is a wonderful book. Read it and learn.” —Samuel R. Delany, author of Dhalgren

With "My Gender Workbook," Bornstein brings theory down to earth and provides a practical approach to living with or without a gender. She also takes aim at efforts to naturalize gender differences.

"This updated edition of Bornstein''s formative My Gender Workbook (1997) provides an invigorating introduction to contemporary theory around gender, sexuality, and power. The original is a classic of modern transgender theory and literature and, alongside Bornstein''s other work, has influenced an entire generation of trans writers and artists. This revised and expanded edition extends that legacy, offering an accessible foundation for examining gender in the reader''s life and in the broader culture while arguing for the dismantling of all forms of oppression. For fans of the original, Bornstein''s new material merits a fresh read..."--Publishers Weekly, starred review Cultural theorists have written loads of smart but difficult-to-fathom texts on gender theory, but most fail to provide a hands-on, accessible guide for those trying to sort out their own sexual identities. In My Gender Workbook, transgender activist Kate Bornstein brings theory down to Earth and provides a practical approach to living with or without a gender. Bornstein starts from the premise that there are not just two genders performed in today''s world, but countless genders lumped under the two-gender framework. Using a unique, deceptively simple and always entertaining workbook format, complete with quizzes, exercises, and puzzles, Bornstein gently but firmly guides readers toward discovering their own unique gender identity. Since its first publication in 1997, My Gender Workbook has been challenging, encouraging, questioning, and helping those trying to figure out how to become a "real man," a "real woman," or "something else entirely." In this exciting new edition of her classic text, Bornstein re-examines gender in light of issues like race, class, sexuality, and language. With new quizzes, new puzzles, new exercises, and plenty of Kate''s playful and provocative style, My New Gender Workbook promises to help a new generation create their own unique place on the gender spectrum.

Celebrated transsexual trailblazer Kate Bornstein has, with more humor and spunk than any other, ushered us into a world of limitless possibility through a daring re-envisionment of the gender system as we know it. Here, Bornstein bravely and wittily shares personal and unorthodox methods of survival in an often cruel world. A one-of-a-kind guide to staying alive outside the box, Hello, Cruel World is a much-needed unconventional approach to life for those who want to stay on the edge, but alive. Hello, Cruel World features a catalog of 101 alternatives to suicide that range from the playful (moisturize!), to the irreverent (shatter some family values), to the highly controversial. Designed to encourage readers to give themselves permission to unleash their hearts'' harmless desires, the book has only one directive: "Don''t be mean." It is this guiding principle that brings its reader on a self-validating journey, which forges wholly new paths toward a resounding decision to choose life. Tenderly intimate and unapologetically edgy, Kate Bornstein is the radical role model, the affectionate best friend, and the guiding mentor all in one.

Two cybersex operators -- a man and a woman -- defy a U.S. law requiring a permit to use the Internet. Their campaign of protest leads to a general shutdown of e-mail operations across the world. By the author of Gender Outlaw.

This cyber-erotic romantic thriller, written by two queer icons in the 1990s, has been "rebooted" for today''s readers. In this rowdy cyber-romance originally written in the 1990s, two people meet online and fall in love in every guise they can manage. As Scratch and Winc go from anonymous lovers to accidental heroes and gender outlaws, they expose the shadowy Web stretched between technology and capitalist greed, nearly becoming roadkill on the internet superhighway. With a little help from their friends including a brave teenager and a mysterious hacker, these darling rebels fight government intervention and find chosen family in this eerily prescient tale. The 30th anniversary “reboot” edition includes an updated lens for today’s readers, as GenZ investigative journalist Drew uncovers what just might be the greatest queer love story of all time.

This 20th anniversary edition of transsexual trailblazer Kate Bornstein’s unconventional guide to staying alive for teens, freaks and gender outlaws features 20 NEW Alternatives and a new foreword by the author. "A don''t-hurt guide for anyone who''s been tempted to give in to despair." --Time Out New York "You''ll want to keep extra copies of this one on the shelf to give away to friends in need." --Bitch magazine Now updated and with new material Hello, Cruel World features a catalog of 121 alternatives to suicide that range from the playful (moisturize!), to the irreverent (shatter some family values), to the controversial, fun, challenging and easy. Encouraging readers to unleash their hearts'' harmless desires, the book has only one directive: "Don''t be mean." It is this guiding principle that brings the reader on a self-validating journey and toward a resounding decision to embrace life. Using graphics and checklists, and with great humor and gutsiness, Kate Bornstein dares readers to re-envision the gender system as we know it. She offers stories and insights that are tenderly intimate and unapologetically edgy. Hello, Cruel World also includes: an Introduction by Sara Quin of Tegan and Sara The Hello Cruel Scale of Feelings an Index of Alternatives with safety and effectiveness scales Suicide rates among lgbtq+ teens are much higher than for their cis peers; with love and humor and confession and insight, Bornstein hopes to keep every freak out there alive. She is a radical role model, an affectionate best friend, and a guiding mentor all in one. This one-of-a-kind guide to staying alive is a much-needed, sometimes unorthodox approach to life for those who want to stay on the edge, and alive. Finalist, LGBT Nonfiction Lambda Literary Award, 2009Honor Book, Stonewall Children’s and Young Adult Literature Award, 2009

Scientologe, Ehemann und Vater, Transe, Seemann, SM-Sklavin, Theaterautorin, Lesbe und Gender-Outlaw sind nur einige der Begriffe, die Kate Bornsteins außergewöhnliches Leben kennzeichnen. Mit ›Ein schädlicher Einfluss‹ verbindet sie die Etappen ihrer Lebensgeschichte zu einer einzigartigen Autobiografie, die Leben verändern und Leser begeistern wird. Bornsteins bisher persönlichstes Buch erzählt mit viel Weisheit, beißendem Witz und entwaffnender Ehrlichkeit die Geschichte des netten jüdischen Jungen aus New Jersey, der zum hochrangigen Scientology-Mitglied in der Sea Org aufsteigt und eine Familie gründet, um dann in den 1990er-Jahren als Transsexuelle eine schillernde Persönlichkeit der Lesbenszene in Seattle zu werden. Auf ihrer fesselnden Selbstfindungsreise erlebt man ihre Ehefrauen, Liebhaber und Liebhaberinnen, Siege und Niederlagen, Neuanfänge und Abschiede. Kate Bornstein, Performance-Künstlerin und Theaterautorin, verfasste bereits einige preisgekrönte Bücher, darunter ›Gender Outlaw, On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us‹, ›My Gender Workbook‹ und ›Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks, and Other Outlaws‹. Wegen ihres politischen Engagements erhielt sie in der Vergangenheit zwei Auszeichnungen der Stadt New York und wird weltweit von Menschenrechtsorganisationen für ihre Arbeit geschätzt. Kate lebt mit ihrer Freundin, drei Katzen, zwei Hunden und einer Schildkröte in New York.