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

Bad News and Wonderful News

Dear Readers and Friends, Family and Tribe,

I've got bad news and wonderful news.

The bad news is that I've been diagnosed with lung cancer.

The wonderful news is that the docs found it by accident, and the tumor (singular) is very very early in it's development. The cancer is deeply embedded in the upper lobe of my right lung. That means that all the doctors have to do is take out the upper lobe of my right lung (Your left lung has two lobes, your right lung has three. Did you know that? I didn't, not before this.) Assuming they're right, I won't be needing any chemo or radiation. They'll just take out the chunk of lung that has the tumor, along with the lymph nodes that are hooked up to my right lung, et voila! Healthy Auntie. And the funnest part of this news? The surgeon is gonna use ROBOTS to do the surgery!! How cool is that?

I've been through batteries of tests over the last couple of weeks. They show that my lungs are super strong, and my heart's in great shape. So, I've got a green light for surgery. The date is set for October 25th—with 3 to 5 days recovery in the hospital afterwards. Given that my immune system is already compromised by my CLL (chronic lymphatic leukemia), it'll most likely be the full five days, and I'll be out in time for Halloween! Then, it'll be another couple of weeks recovering at home, and I'll be up and around and back to pro wrestling. I've always wanted to give pro wrestling a try.

But wait, there's more good news! My girlfriend, Barbara Carrellas, has got me on an anti-cancer diet. I've cut out all meat, dairy, gluten, and sugar. Cancer LOVES sugar, and grows really fast on it. Did you know that? I didn't. But I'm eating good food now.

I still have other health issues going on—the stuff that the docs were trying to find out when they accidentally found my lung cancer. So this month is a great big see-the-doctors month for me. That's why I've had to cancel a couple of my speaking and performance gigs. Hopefully, I won't have to cancel any more.

I'm telling you all this because I've told you everything else about my life, and despite that, you've chosen to keep me company on this life path of mine. I'm so grateful for your company. I welcome your good wishes, prayers, candles, and any other good ju-ju you'd like to send. That'd be perfectly lovely, thank you. I'm sure I won't be able to answer everyone's tweets or comments, but know that I'll hold your wishes deep in my strong, healthy heart.

See you on the other side of this.

kiss kiss (don't worry — it's not catching)

Auntie Kate

15 Spaces of Cultural Regulation, and the Binaries They Pretend to Be

I've been working on a new version of my touring workshop. This one's called:

World Peace

through Gender Anarchy & Sex Positivity

I tried out early versions of the workshop at both the Queer Arts Festival in Vancouver, and at a recent tour at Hampshire College. I'll be honing and developing the piece over the next couple of seasons' touring. Here's one of the slides I'm using. I told folks at Hampshire that I'd post this online for their reference. I'm trying to contextualize the gender binary as one of many spaces of cultural regulation that more or less pass for binaries in the world. The workshop points toward building a coalition of the margins, with both sexuality & gender activists playing an equal role at the coalition table. This is nothing written in stone. It's just a theory, which means it could be a great big fat lie. But I don't think it is. Comments welcome.

xoxo

Auntie Kate

(click on the image to see full-size. feel free to copy & print.)