Kate Bornstein

Drag queen is a gender like no other, and with practice I'd learned to rise to it.

While railing against the manufactured prerequisites of womanhood or manhood, we need to avoid manufacturing our own prerequisites. The non-operative journey and the objection to it illustrate just one area in which we need to open our thinking to other journeys while expecting that others respect our own. - Mercedes Allen

Instead of saying that all gender is this or all gender is that, let's recognize that the word gender has scores of meaning built into it. It's an amalgamation of bodies, identities, and life experiences, subconscious urges, sensations, and behaviors, some of which develop organically, and others which are shaped by language and culture. Instead of saying that gender is any one single thing, let's start describing it as a holistic experience.

Let's stop pretending that we have all the answers, because when it comes to gender, none of us is fucking omniscient.

Safe gender is being who and what we want to be when we want to be that, with no threat of censure or violence.Safe gender is going as far in any direction as we wish, With no threat to our health, or anyone else__.Safe gender is not being pressured into passing, not Having to lie, not having to hide.Sane gender is asking questions about gender - talkingTo people who do gender, and opening up about ourGender histories and our gender desires.Sane gender is probably very, very funny.Consensual gender is respecting each others_ definitionOf gender, and respecting the wishes of some to be alone,And respecting the intentions of others to be inclusive inTheir own time.Consensual gender is non-violent in that it doesn__ forceIts way in on anyone.Consensual gender opens its arms and welcomes all People as gender outcasts - whoever is willing to admit it.

It's easy to fictionalize an issue when you're not aware of the many ways in which you are privileged by it.

When we talk about my gender as though it were a performance, we let the audience - with all their expectations, prejudices, and presumptions - completely off the hook. - Scott Turner Schofield

I see fashion as a proclamation or manifestation of identity, so, as long as identities are important, fashion will continue to be important. The link between fashion and identity begins to get real interesting, however, in the case of people who don't fall clearly into a culturally-recognized identity.

From the moment we take our first breath (and sometimes even before that, what with sonic imaging technology), the cry __t__ a boy_ or __t__ a girl_ ushers us into this world. As we grow into adulthood, everything about us grows and matures as we grow and mature. Everything except gender, that is. We__e supposed to believe that our gender stays exactly the same as the day we were born. Our genders never shift, we__e told. The genders we__e assigned at birth lock us onto a course through which we__l be expected to become whole, well-rounded, creative, loving people__ut only as men or as women. From where I stand, that__ like taking a field of racehorses, hobbling the front legs of half of them and the rear legs of the other half, and expecting them to run a decent race: it doesn__ work. Gender, this thing we__e all seemingly born with, is a major restraint to self-expression.That doesn__ make sense to me. Why should we be born with such a hobble? Does that make sense to you?

Being transgender guarantees you will upset someone. People get upset with transgender people who choose to inhabit a third gender space rather than __ick a side._ Some get upset at transgender people who do not eschew their birth histories. Others get up in arms with those who opted out of surgical options, instead living with their original equipment. Ire is raised at those who transition, then transition again when they decide that their initial change was not the right answer for them. Heck, some get their dander up simply because this or that transgender person simply is not __rying hard enough_ to be a particular gender, whatever that means. Some are irked that the Logo program_RuPaul__ Drag Race_shows a version of transgender life different from their own. Meanwhile, all around are those who have decided they aren__ comfortable with the lot of us, because we dared to change from one gender expression or identity to some other.

It is important to note that the relevant factor to sexual harassment in this story is not gender identity but gender perception. Some friends and acquaintances who have experienced harassment do not, in fact, identify as women; they were perceived as women. As I sought support, the key issue was not their gender identity, but the gender signifiers that led them to be perceived as women. If we don__ admit that sexual harassment is a gendered experience, we can never shed light on the sexism implicit in many cases of harassment. However, in addressing these sorts of gendered experiences, we may find that gender identity is not the most useful category.

_gender is not sane. It's not sane to call a rainbow black and white.

We can't ignore right-wing demagogues who insist that the word of the doctor who proclaims a child's sex at birth somehow holds more sway over the reality of the body than the word of the person who inhabits it. - Gwendolyn Ann Smith

We change our attitudes, our careers, our relationships. Even our age changes minute by minute. We change our politics, our moods, and our sexual preferences. We change our outlook, we change our minds, we change our sympathies. Yet when someone changes hir gender, we put hir on some television talk show. Well, here__ what I think: I think we all of us do change our genders. All the time. Maybe it__ not as dramatic as some tabloid headline screaming __he Was A He!_ But we do, each of us, change our genders. In response to each interaction we have with a new or different person, we subtly shift the kind of man or woman, boy or girl, or whatever gender we__e being at the moment. We__e usually not the same kind of man or woman with our lover as we are with our boss or a parent. When we__e introduced for the first time to someone we find attractive, we shift into being a different kind of man or woman than we are with our childhood friends. We all change our genders.

The first question we usually ask new parents is : __s it a boy or a girl ?_.There is a great answer to that one going around : __e don__ know ; it hasn__ told us yet._ Personally, I think no question containing __ither/or_ deserves a serious answer, and that includes the question of gender.

Never fuck anyone you wouldn't want to be.

Disney will never make a movie about my life story, and that's a shame--I'd make a really cute animated creature.

And keep in mind that the you that makes life worthy of living today won__ be the same you that makes life worth living this time next year. Identities aren__ meant to be permanent. They__e like cars: they take us from one place to another. We work, travel, and seek adventure in them until they break down beyond repair. At that point, living well means finding a new model that better suits us for a new moment.