All Posts in “Transgender”

Censorship

Disappeared Sex Positive, Gender Bent Books On Amazon.com

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CensorshipFollow Breaking News on Twitter: #amazonfail

It's been called to my attention that it may not be possible to buy new copies of any of my books on Amazon.com. You can find Kindle editions for Hello, Cruel World and My Gender Workbook. Whoopee. And there's no record of my sales record there, either. Dang.

I'm not the only queer, sex positive, gender bent author to have gone missing.  

Thank you, Melissa Gira Grant at Sexerati, who's got the most up-to-date coverage of this weird, weird right wing news of literary censorship. 

Among the MIA (Missing In Amazon): Barbara Carrellas, Dossie Easton, S. Bear Bergman, Helen Boyd, Laura Antoniou, Candida Royale, Julia Serano, Carol Queen, Annie Sprinkle, Lawrence Schimmel. And those were just the first couple I searched for. Holy poop! 
Wasn't Bush voted out of office?? Who is putting this kind of pressure on Amazon.com? Whoever it is, they don't know how subversive and queer Judith Butler is. You can still buy her books on Amazon. But I wouldn't. I'd buy all my books elsewhere, until Amazon comes to it's senses.

I'm writing my agent and publishers to see what's up. In the meantime, you can buy my books through your local queer and sex positive bookstore. If you don't live near a queer or independent bookstore and need to buy online, do check out Powell's Books, a fabulous independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon. Or you can find them used at ABE Books.

Petitions and write-in campaigns have already begun. Check with your fave queer authors' blogs and websites and Twitter accounts for more updates. I'll post more when I know more. 

In the meantime, persevere. Enjoy your sex positive, genderbent theory and porn.

Frak Amazon.com.
Kate

Men women

I’ve Been Lying All Along. Gender IS a Binary.

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Men women
Of course gender is a binary. What else could it be? For thousands of years—via dozens of major religions, all doctors ever, hundreds of wise philosophers, and countless laws, rules and regulations, even via God Himself—gender has been understood as a binary: man and woman. That's it. I wrote Gender Outlaw as a lark. I'm not even transsexual, for goodness sakes! I don't understand those people. Do you? But once I made my first year of six figure income from sales of that book, I figured what the hell… and then I wrote My Gender Workbook. Excuse me… as if someone could or would "work" their gender. What a laugh. I'm sorry if anyone took me seriously. It was fun for me to write, and I hope no one was inconvenienced.

kiss kiss
Kate
610x

Oh Boy! Pope Benedict Curses Postmodern Gender Theory!

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610x

With only moments left til the beginning of 2009, I was really worried that postmodern gender theorists would once again go un-noticed, ignored and un-condemned by His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI. (Note… NOT Benedict XX or XY, but XVI… imagine that!) 

Well, thank goodness, PBXVI came to his senses. On December 23rd, he has actually condemned postmodern gender theory in his end-of-the-year speech. Why is His Holiness so concerned? 

According to an article in The Australian…

[Gender theory] blurs the distinction between male and female and could thus lead to the "self-destruction" of the human race.

Hey! That's what I've been saying all along! Wheeeeee! But wait, there's more:

When the Roman Catholic Church defends God's Creation, "it does not only defend the earth, water and the air … but (it) also protects man from his own destruction.''

Oh. My. God! The entire Roman Catholic Church is defending man [sic] from me and mine! I feel so… vindicated! 'tis the season to be JOLLY!

extra special holiday kisses,

Kate
LG not BT

LGBT: Who’s In? Who’s Out? Who’s Out of Touch?

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Thanks to a Twitter heads up from Stand Up Southern Nevada, I heard about a couple of LGBT actions that are sadly more of the same, and I'd sure like to know more about both of them if you've got any information.

LG not BT
Can you believe it? There are still groups and political actions that are trying to divide LGBTQAAetc into smaller and smaller groups. How old-fashioned is that?

First off, there's something called In The Parade. I tried finding the name(s) of the people or organizations behind this brainstorm, but I haven't heard back from them yet. I'm being catty. In The Parade has a lovely premise: queer people have long been excluded as a contingent marching in the US Presidential Inaugural Parade. So, whoever's behind In The Parade is aiming at getting Lesbians and Gays represented. That's right. Lesbians and Gays. There are no bisexuals, trannies, genderqueers, SM players, queers or allies of any stripe. Just your garden variety lesbian woman and gay man. How 20th Century! Please, if you've got any more information on this bit of out of touch activism, please Twitter me or leave me a comment here. Thanks!

Secondly (and again, thanks to the vigilant watchdogs at Stand Up Southern Nevada), there's a protest day called A Day Without Gay. No, really. Everyone who's gay is supposed to stay home from work to show the world that they really won't get along without gays by their side. Unlike In The Parade, A Day Without Gay takes pains to explain that they don't really mean Gay only. In fact, if you dig down to the middle of their FAQ page, there's a defense of exclusionary political jargonizing:

It's terribly important to understand that on this one day, we're using "gay" as shorthand for the entire LGBT community strictly because of the universality of recognition for the movement both in American culture and worldwide as it's been covered in media ranging from Mexico, Canada, Austria, Germany, Italy, and beyond. You are SO SO SO included and necessary if you are bisexual, transgendered, intersexed, queer, or questioning…and straight allies are included as well.

Gee, I feel SO SO SO much better now that I know it's only on "this one day" that we're using gay to invisibilize everyone else whose identity depends on their desire. ARGHHHHHHHH! Right, so I'm cranky. I just do NOT want to start off the Age of Obama with more internal silencing of our own freakin' people.

So, to people who say they're speaking on behalf of LG, or LGBT (and letters as yet unmentionable), please consider this:   President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama was voted into office on the basis of building coalitions. It's more than a lesbian/gay coalition these days. Really. Like, didja know that one of the National Co-Chairs of Obama Pride is Marcia Botzer, an out and proud and accomplished transwoman. Please, GROW UP! The rest of us have. It's a new age of politics. Please, divide us no more. If you're going to do anything in the name of Obama, do it in the spirit he stands for.  

Okay, let's all go do important political action things and play nice with each other.

Kiss Kiss

Kate

Wendy_chapkis

How I Met Wendy Chapkis and Why I Love Her So

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Wendy_chapkis
So okay, is the woman in this picture amazing, or what? 

This is Wendy Chapkis, a mentor of mine and long-time crush. When I was a baby tranny in San Francisco—a two-year old girl in 1988—I ran across a copy of Wendy's book, Beauty Secrets: Women and the Politics of Appearance.  

I was trying my best to be a woman. I was trying my best to be political. I was standing alone, scared, in the feminist aisle of a women's bookstore. I was keeping secrets, and I was obsessed with my appearance. Here was this woman writing proudly about sporting her moustache… what effect that had on her day to day life, and how she dealt with all the bullshit that comes with being a freak of beauty, a beautiful freak.  

Wow! Shivering, I thumbed through her book and I saw it's brilliant theme: women do a lot of things in secret in order to make themselves look beautiful. Things they don't want you to know about, like their moustaches. Like my year-old newly constructed vagina. Wendy Chapkis wrote about how it's time to not keep secrets any more. In 1988, this was an astonishing idea. I left the bookstore with her book in my pocketbook. I felt the beginnings of personal liberation. And I was totally crushed out on this hot, strong babe with a moustache.


I worked selling subscriptions at the San Francisco Symphony. My arts writer pay from the gay paper, The Bay Area Reporter, didn't come close to covering expenses. The SF Symphony phone room was old school—we didn't use computers back then. We called names and phone numbers written on 5×7 cardboard cards. Well, two weeks after I found Wendy's book, there I was sitting in the phone room of the SF Symphony. I was holding a 5×7 card with Wendy Chapkis' name, phone number, address, and musical preferences. Oh. My. Goddess. Score!

I dialed. Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. Answering machine. Damn! Phone room policy mandated we return any unanswered calls to the common pile, not keep them for calling again later. It was a good policy. It kept folks from hoarding what they thought might be easy sales. But I kept Wendy Chapkis' card with me. I brought that card back to the phone room every day for a week, and was too afraid to call. Finally, I got my courage…  It took two weeks of calling until I finally reached a live Wendy. 

Hello, Ms. Chapkis? This is Kate Bornstein calling from the San Francisco Symphony about your… say-y-y-y-y-y, wait a minute… is this Wendy Chapkis who wrote the book, Beauty Secrets?


Our friendship has grown over the past 20 years. Wendy teaches at the University of Maine. Her partner way back then and to this very day is Gabe. Gabe makes great jewelry and gives great arts and political grassroots organizing. Wendy and Gabe were and still are the outest dyke couple I've ever known. I love 'em to pieces. 

So… why'm I writing about this now? Wendy's got a new book! It's called Dying to Get High: Marijuana as Medicine. I haven't read it yet, but… hello? What an amazing topic. Wendy's coming to New York City to read at Bluestockings Books on Monday, December 1st at 7pm. I'm going. I'll buy my signed copy—I still have that crush—and I'll set that book down on the night table next to my bed for a nightly read. If you're a New York area teen, freak or outlaw, please join me at the reading. And look for me. I'll be the tall redhead looking longingly at the author.

kiss kiss

Kate

Charles_atlas

May We Please Remember Abraham Biggs Today?

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Nineteen year old Abraham Biggs linked himself to a website streaming live video. In front of the camera, he purposefully OD'd on prescription meds. He lived in Broward County, Florida where he wasn't man enough to live. That's what he thought. 

Charles_atlas
"I am in love with a girl and I know that I am not good enough for her," he wrote on a body-building forum. "I have come to believe that my life has all been meaningless. I keep trying and I keep failing. I have thought about and attempted suicide many times in the past." He wrote this on a body-building forum. He was trying to build his body, and this is what he wrote there. Connection?

Wendy Crane, an investigator at the Broward County Medical Examiner's office, is ABC News' source. She said, "People were egging him on and saying things like 'go ahead and do it, faggot." Faggot. Connection?

According to ABC News, Wired Magazine chimed in by reporting comments written in response to Abraham's suicidal posts—comments ranging from OMG to LOL. One commenter wrote, "hahaha hahahahha hahahahahah ahhaha." Another comment read, "Instant Darwinism …" which was seconded by, "fucking a nicely put." And guess what… other commenters called Abraham a "coward," a "faggot" and a "dick." Connection?

The connection is the bipolar gender system—the simplistic belief that there are men and there are women, and everyone else deserves to die. The bipolar gender/sexuality matrix kills a lot of people, that's what I want to say. Whether we kill ourselves, or people kill us because we're not real mean or real women… we end up dead, damn it. So are we allowed to mourn Abraham Biggs today, on Transgender Day of Remembrance? I am. Bless your heart, Abraham. I am so sorry you thought you weren't good enough. 

I am so sorry that we as a culture haven't yet figured out how to deal with gender as a hierarchal system of oppression that kills kids like Abraham, as clearly as race kills kids, class kills kids, and sexuality kills kids. Gender as an oppressive system is as deadly as looks, ability, religion, age and citizenship—all hierarchal systems of oppression. Can we please remember that on this Transgender Day of Remembrance? 

Okay, I'm gonna go cry now. 

Kate
Goal Thermometer

Obama Campaign Acknowledges Transgender Community As Supporters… Now What?!

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Goal ThermometerOne of the terrible things about life inside a closet is you never get to speak out loud as the person you know yourself to be. When you’re living in the closet, no one who loves you ever gets to call you the name you’ve always wanted to hear. For over two decades, Trans activists, artists, educators, and bloggers across the USA and around the world have worked to open closet doors for trannies. That’s over 20 years of hard work on local, regional, national and global levels. And now it looks like our combined work has brought us to a tipping point in the history of Transgender politics.

Yesterday, I read the news on Helen Boyd’s En|Gender website. The presidential campaign of Senator Barack Obama has publicly thanked the Trans Community for our support. I’m dizzy with joy that we’ve come so far in my lifetime, and this is a great opportunity to come together as a real community. There’s no monolithic transgender community in the world, and I hope there never will be. There are many Transgender communities, and all I want is for us to work more closely together with one another. We need to heal the divisions in our Trans world in the same way that we want Senator Obama to heal the terrible divisions resulting from eight years of government sanctioned and government sponsored oppression. So, how do we take a step from here on what’s going to be a long road toward Transgender unity? First, I think, we need to understand what it is that’s been keeping us apart for so long.

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Gender Outlaws for Obama: the end… or is it just the beginning?

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Yesterday was a such a pisser! We started the day at 105 contributors. At 12:24 this morning (EST), Trans-blogging for Obama Day broke through our target goal of 200 pro-Trans contributors to the Obama/Biden ticket. We raised over $6000 for Obama’s campaign. AND, we accomplished this on a day that was not only the start of a Jewish High Holy Day, it was also the day that will go down in history as “Black Monday ’08.” Despite it all, we flourished. Wait… we’re trannies—we do everything with a flourish!

In the future, when I’m asked how far the transgender community has come since my day, I’ll point to these days as a great leap for trannies, and even a small step forward for the world we live in. At the level of national elections, we are invisibles no more.

Here’s how the day played out…

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Obama_pride

Gender Outlaws for Obama

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Obama_prideToday is Trans-Blogs for Obama Day. The Stonewall Democrats are sponsoring a cyber day on which the transgender community can publicly rally around Senator Obama. We can show him our support and our numbers on a full day of trans and ally fundraising for the good Senator from Illinois. Twenty years ago, I never envisioned a tranny community, much less a tranny community that could make itself heard on a national level.

When I’m out on tour, a question I’m most regularly asked is, “How far has the transgender movement come since your days, when you were transitioning?” I usually duck the question, because the answer isn’t as simple as “great” or “awful.” Over the last two decades, there have been some wonderful political and cultural advancements. Yet I’m pretty sure that I speak for the majority of trannies when I say that from our perspective, we could certainly use more change than what we’ve gotten over the last twenty years.

Here’s what it was like twenty years ago…

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Moving_on_5

Of What Possible Value Is Transgender Experience & Theory In These Changing Times?

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Moving_on_5Dear Friends, Family, and Tribe,

I’m preparing to head out on the road again—I’m looking for tribe. It’s my 15th year of touring, and I’m both excited and apprehensive. The USA is clearly polarized—scarily so. So, who will be moving into the White House next? There are only two choices. A sweet, young man who has captured the heart of a great number of Americans? Or another playground bully and his girlfriend, the mean girl?

The world’s about to change, big time. But, no matter who will have taken the reins of the so-called free world, those of us who live out on the edges of the culture aren’t going to see much of the change we need in order to make our lives more worth living. And those of us who live out on the margins of the culture aren’t going to be any more free than we are at this moment.

Some of us live outside the culturally acceptable limits of gender, and sexuality. Others of us live way-y-y out on the despised margins of race, age, and class. Lots of us may be spiritual, but not too many religions want to include us… except maybe as charity cases. For many of us—ever since we were kids—people have laughed at us for how we looked. Or they stared at our differently abled bodies.

We’re citizens of the world, but too many of us end up as second class citizens, or illegal immigrants. We are most of the people in the world, but the powers that be are building walls to keep us out and apart.

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