Kate Bornstein’s Unusual Journey

Posted by helenboyd – May 28, 2012

It is with absolute pleasure that I get to kick off the blog tour for
Kate Bornstein’s new book A Queer and Pleasant Danger because, well,
she’s Kate, for starters, and the grand dame of the radical trans set.

Besides, who else could subtitle a book The True Story of a Nice
Jewish Boy Who Joins the Church of Scientology and Leaves 12 Years
Later to Become the Lovely Lady She Is Today?

We were lucky enough to have Kate read us a chapter – the one on her
expulsion from Scientology – a few years ago on a drive from Appleton,
WI – where I’d convinced her to come speak at Lawrence University – to
the big queer midwest college conference in Madison, WI, where she was
the keynote speaker. Sometimes it’s striking what kinds of things you
remember, things that maybe no one else would, but anyone – anyone and
their favorite aunt – would definitely remember eating Taco Bell with
Kate Bornstein in a car on a Wisconsin interstate while she reads to
you from her as-yet-unpublished memoir.

I think anyone who reads this will remember it much the same way:
you’ll remember imagining who she was then because it will make you
aware of who you are now & who you have been in a way that the
immediacy of any pop song couldn’t.

The Village Voice did an amazing write up
<http://www.villagevoice.com/2012-05-02/news/kate-bornstein-amazing-vo...>
, so I won’t go into every detail of this wonderful book, but I can
say: it crackles with Kate-ness, which I now think of as a state of
being more than anything else, a kind of awesome mix of camp,
integrity, ego and empathy. Just do go out & get one and read it.

http://www.myhusbandbetty.com/2012/05/28/kate-bornsteins-unusual-jour...