A fierce advocate for youth and “gender outlaws,” Kate Bornstein is a Jewish transgender author, playwright, performance artist and gender theorist. Born Albert Bornstein, Kate was raised in a Conservative Jewish community in New Jersey. She is best known for her groundbreaking books Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us, My Gender Workbook and Hello Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks, and Other Outlaws. Her many plays and performance pieces explore queer identity and the rigid binary system of gender and sexuality that reinforce homophobia and transphobia.
Kate Bornstein performing at the Keshet Cabaret, 2010. Photo: Meri Bond
Kate Bornstein
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1948
March 15 born as Albert Herman Bornstein in Neptune, New Jersey.
1969
Graduated from Brown University where she majored in dramatic arts. Her roles included King Lear and the king in the musical The King and I.
Began studying drama at Brandeis University on full scholarship.
1985-1986
Underwent series of sex reassignment surgeries.
1989
Bornstein’s play Hidden: A Gender premiered in San Francisco.
1991-1995
Bornstein’s play The Opposite Sex is Neither toured throughout the US and Canada.
1994
Bornstein’s one-person show Virtually Yours toured throughout the U.S.
1996
Bornstein’s book Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us was published.
1998
Published My Gender Workbook: How to Become a Real Man, a Real Woman, the Real You, or Something Else Entirely.
2001
Bornstein co-wrote the play Two Tall Blonds in LOVE with partner Barbara Carrellas. It headlined On the Edge Festival of the Theater Offensive, Boston in June.
2003
Kate is commissioned to write and perform Strangers In Paradox: The True Story of Casey and The Kidd for the 25th Anniversary season of Theatre Rhinoceros.
2006
Bornstein published Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks, and Other Outlaws.
2009
Kate Bornstein received Keshet Hachamat Lev award for her work as a Jewish transgender activist, theorist, and performer.
2009
Kate was honored by Brown University at the 40th anniversary of class of 1969 graduation.
2010
Published “Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation” in collaboration with S. Bear Bergman.