Kate Bornstein vs. Gender Bullies
Author, playwright, performance artist and gender theorist Kate Bornstein wrote on "Why the Gender Bullies Can’t Win," an essay that appears in the current issue of Rolling Stone.
She wrote, "It isn’t going to be easy. It may take a while. So we keep resisting. I’m 70 years old, and I’ve been resisting gender bullying from the day I was told I had to be a boy. I’m still alive, and joyously living the gender of my choice. We all can do that if we do it together with the kindness, compassion, and justice we all deserve."
I urge you to read her entire essay. After all the transphobic flak we have been experiencing lately, I felt encouraged after reading her words.
And go Red Sox!
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| Wearing Boston Proper (Source: Boston Proper) |
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This is the outfit Kerry plans to wear on Halloween. "I'm to old to trick or treat, but a stroll through the mall would be just as fun. The killer heels I'm wearing killed my feet after two hours. Have fun on Halloween."
(Send me a photo of your all-time favorite Halloween femulation and I will post it here, too.) |
I went to hear Kate speak only a few months after I'd ventured out of my closet in 2007. There was a poetry slam scheduled as an opening act, performed mostly by angry gender fluid youth. I couldn't relate, at that time, and snuck outside the auditorium's side door. As I stood out in the cold evening air, Kate appeared from the stage door. We had quite the conversation for at least 15 minutes before she got the "5 minutes!" from the manager. I'm not one to be stage struck, and I think she appreciated that I wasn't. She doesn't like bullshit, and I pity the fool who would attempt to bully her.
ReplyDeleteKate is so right. Often it feels as though we are being ganged up on, but truth be told, it's just a few big mouthed bigots and their volume makes fighting them seem daunting. There are way more of us out here who champion the rights of those who dare to be different. We can outlast the bigots because we are greater in number and most importantly, because we are right.
ReplyDeleteHugs,
Sally