The stunningly orignial memoir of a nice Jewish boy who left the Church of Scientology to become the lovely lady she is today
In the early 1970s, a boy from a Conservative Jewish family joined the Church of Scientology. In 1981, that boy officially left the movement and ultimately transitioned into a woman. A few years later, she stopped calling herself a woman—and became a famous gender outlaw.
Gender theorist, performance artist, and author Kate Bornstein is set to change lives with her stunningly original memoir. Wickedly funny and disarmingly honest, this is Bornstein's most intimate book yet, encompassing her early childhood and adolescence, college at Brown, a life in the theater, three marriages and fatherhood, the Scientology hierarchy, transsexual life, LGBTQ politics, and life on the road as a sought-after speaker.
“A singular achievement and gift to the generations of queers who consider her our Auntie, and all those who will follow.”
—Lambda Literary
“Breathless, passionate, and deeply honest, A Queer and Pleasant Danger is a wonderful book. Read it and learn.”
—Samuel R. Delany, author of Dhalgren
In A Queer and Pleasant Danger, Bornstein chronicles her time spent in (and escape from) Scientology, her exploration of her own gender identity, and the darker aspects of her life (addiction, anorexia, sadomasochism, suicide attempts). It’s candid, gritty, dark; yet Bornstein’s humor often has you laughing where you feel like you shouldn’t. She admits she loves a good tall tale, and she treats us to that here and there: “That’s a lie, but that’s show biz.” Without this humor, her memoir would have felt overwhelmingly dark.
Kate Bornstein really is a gender outlaw! She skates between the lines of all sorts of labels. She claims the word “tranny” and unabashedly uses the word “she-male.” It is what it is. [Here’s a thoughtful clip from I Am Cait where Bornstein and Jennifer Finney Boylan discuss “tranny.”]
Bornstein provides first-person insight into early feminist and trans rights movements. Reading about her experiences helped me understand some of the attitudes of older trans women I’ve met (Bornstein grew up in that Father Knows Best / Leave It to Beaver era). I didn’t understand their perspective at all before, but I gained insight learning about the troubled history between feminists and trans activists, and infighting within the trans community.
The bulk of A Queer and Pleasant Danger talks about Scientology, because Bornstein was involved in that for twelve years, until she formally left in 1981 and was banned from contact with her family (including her 8-year-old daughter Jessica, who is now an adult with children of her own) . There’s a lot of information here, much of it downright chilling. The memoir ends with a heartfelt letter to Jessica, should she and her children ever read the book.
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6 October, 2016:
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6 October, 2016:
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