Kate Bornstein Is A Queer and Pleasant Danger—this is her blog

Seeing Beyond Red or Blue: The Value of A Transgender Perspective to a Successful US Presidency

All this talk about Trans for Obama has got me wondering: what is it that trannies can offer a guy who believes he's fully qualified to lead the free world? He says he wants to give us change we can believe in. Well, both Senators Obama and McCain are promising they'll change things for the better. They both say they're going to change this world into a better place for all of us. Change, change, change. Every other word in this furshlugginer campaign is change.

It's my opinion that neither Senator should fiddle around with any change until they learn a lot more about the mechanics of change... and precisely what it is about our culture that needs changing—like the either/or bully tactics of junior high that are playing themselves out in the US presidential campaign. It's time Americans change the way we see ourselves, far beyond Red or Blue. Trannies just may hold the key to accomplishing that. We know the principles of profound, complex change.

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

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...

Gender Outlaws for Obama

Today 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...

Honoring Virginia Ramey Mollenkott

Remarks I wrote and delivered in New York City at the Union Theological Seminary on Friday, September 19th, 2008—on the occasion of the publication of the new edition of her book, Sensuous Spirituality, and the acceptance of Virginia Ramey Mollenkott's archives at The Center for Lesbian & Gay Studies in Religion & Ministry at Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, California.

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One of the major blocks to going through with my gender change was my fear of God's wrath. It makes sense—I'm a Jew, and we believe that God can be mighty wrathful when He wants to be—no matter that wrath is a deadly sin.

I left religion behind me, and embraced atheism as a spiritual path. Many transgender people do that: when our religious leaders tell us how angry God is going to be with us for messing with our God-given genders, we turn away from God. And we eventually reach a point of unbearable loneliness and inconsolable grief, with no God to comfort us. Virginia Ramey Mollenkott is the first person to address our spiritual conundrum. She is the first person to return us to God's comfort and wisdom.

Race AND Gender Equity Advocates for Obama

Look at Senator McCain! Please, look closely. You can do just that at the website of The Real McCain.

Two days before Governor Palin's nomination. I turned to my girlfriend and said, "Y'know what? McCain is going to nominate a woman." True story. I bet if Senator Obama had chosen a woman as a running mate, McCain would now be running with an African American man on his ticket.

It's a mostly successful Right Wing tactic to splinter the Left into small groups of focused advocates, each grabbing for a seat at the master's table. Unlike the different special interest groups of the Right Wing, race and gender activists haven't worked together for decades building coalition. Gender versus race is costing the Democrats votes, damnit.

For my part I'm not going to be divided. I voted for Clinton in the Democratic primary, and I'm supporting and voting for Obama in November. Senator Obama is our best hope to push back the tides of racism and sexism that were unleashed and nurtured under the Bush administration.

Grudge 2, a Deliciously Horrifying Vision of Intersecting Oppressions (with a bonus short horror film by me!)

Last night was Fright Night with a couple of friends and colleagues of mine, Felicia Luna Lemus, and T Cooper. I'm a fan of both their writing, which is compelling, edgy and completely charming—each in its own way. Well, last night I went over to their place for a late night Fright Night.

We watched Grudge 2. The writing, design, and directing pure noir manga, and not without its soft core pervy side—cute manga girls in school uniforms. With mini-skirts. Well, there are plenty of them in the movie. Be still, my heart. Along with The Grudge, it makes for a great double feature.

The title creature—be it grudge, curse, or ghost—is a new, scary archetype for Western audiences unschooled in Japanese horror imagery. He/she/it/they appear(s) as several ages, genders, generations, races, and species—shape-shifting into and out of any number of people's bodies... their own, or the bodies of their victims. You never know if one of them is sitting right next to you, right now.

That's what's scary. And that's what scares people about anyone who's an outlaw that can pass for normal. People think we're going to hurt them because, hey, that's what ya see in the movies. So, even when our intentions are kind and honorable, the idea that outlaws can pass scares the poop outta people.

God bless America, God curse the freaks.

The closer we get to the US presidential election, the more frequently we hear, God, bless America. I’ve been embarrassed about that phrase all my life, because I’ve never known what God bless America (GBA) actually means. GBA is used variously as a statement of fact, a prayer, a wish, or a blessing. I think I’ve finally got it figured out... and God bless America is none of the above.

At first glance, GBA looks like a statement. But to make that work, you’d have to say, “God blesses America.” GBA sounds more like a command—a phrase generally spoken in an impressively commanding tone—as if to say, “God, I command You to bless America.” But no one commands God, right? Not even the people who claim to understand Him or His will.

Many people agree that God bless America is a fervent wish, a longing, or a prayer. If so, it sure is a strange prayer—intoned as it usually is, with fierce belligerence and/or an ear-to-ear grin. When spoken like that, God bless America can sure whip up an audience. Crowds of thousands respond to GBA with unbridled cheers of affirmation, and genuine tears of relief. And that’s the key to what GBA really is. It’s nothing so high and mighty as a prayer, a command, or a statement of fact. God bless America is a slogan. I mean, duh!