Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation

Editor’s note:

The author of this piece, J. Rudy Flesher, is a Philadelphia based actor, blogger and college student. After a three-year detour working in health care he recently returned to The College of New Jersey to complete his B.A. in Women’s and Gender studies. He blogs (sporadically at the moment and daily when school is not in session) here and at The Pistol in Bed Thirteen.

Regular readers of this blog will remember Rudy’s other pieces here, including, “Twentysomething Hairless White Gay Men Who Have Time To Take Pilates 5 Days A Week,” “I’m From Driftwood,” and “A Veteran Is Never An ‘It’ Or A ‘Shim’.”

Hello readers.  I’m thrilled that David has accepted my request to resume guest blogging, devoting my coverage to LGBT arts and culture.  Some of the folks I cover here will be artists and authors kind enough to grant me a moment of their time for an interview; others, including in today’s blog will be individuals on the talent roster of PhinLi Booking, an LGBT and sex positive booking agency for whom I am currently interning.  I am therefore being granted some very special access to some of our boldest and brightest artists, and cannot wait to share the fruits of my labor with you all!

Additionally, I will note that all books referenced here link directly to purchasing them at Giovanni’s Room, Philadelphia’s independent LGBT book store, and one of the only such stores left on the east coast.  I receive no compensation for referring you to them; I simply feel that they are an unbelievable resource to our communities and it is vital to support them, as I have blogged about in the past.

Today I am exiting to be blogging about the recently released anthology “Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation,” edited by Kate Bornstein and S. Bear Bergman.  If you’re familiar with either of their works individually, you know what a dream team this is.

First of all, I should just admit that in my household, Kate is a bit of a goddess.  If authors, performers, and activists had groupies, we’d be carrying her luggage and her props into conferences and theaters.  Her 1994 landmark “Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us” literally changed the landscape of trans issues, queer community, and gender theory in the United States.  She followed up in 1998 with “My Gender Workbook: How to Become a Real Man, A Real Women, The Real you, or Something Else Entirely,” and the text is still in use today from individuals to college classes who want a fun and intelligent guide to gender.

A self-proclaimed advocate for teens, freaks, and other outlaws, Kate’s most recent publication was “Hello Cruel World:  101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks, and other Outlaws.” Kate’s blog links to a free download of a “lite” version of the book and she has recently added her own to cents to Dan Savage’s It Gets Better project.

Co-editor S. Bear Bergman is no slouch hirself.  (For the uninitiated “hirself” is used instead of his or her self, using hir preferred gender neutral pronoun.)  I first became acquainted with Bear via hir essay “An Apology to my Mother,” in the anthology “Second Person Queer: Who you are (so far).” Hir most recent book, “The Nearest Exit may be Behind You,” is a collection of his essays, and was a finalist in 2009 for the prestigious Lambda Literary Award. Ze is also the author of the critically acclaimed “Butch is a Noun,” recently reissued with a new afterward. Like Kate, Bear adds educating and performing to his already considerable resume.

Part of what is so stunning about “Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation,” is that nearly all of the names of the authors are new to me.  Being a pretty avid reader of all things gender queer and trans related, plus with much of my academic research and own performance art falling into that arena in the last year, I consider myself pretty well-in-the-loop.  Kate and Bear have done an unbelievable job of cultivating submissions to their anthology, bringing new voices and new perspectives to the next generation of Gender Outlaws, and for this I am both thrilled and grateful.

If you reside in or near Manhattan, Blue Stockings independent bookstore, located at 172 Allen St, is hosting Kate Bornstein and some fellow gender outlaws for a night of gender anarchy in celebration of the release of Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation.  I invite you to come, as I will certainly be making the trip to be there.

To find out more about Kate Bornstein visit her blog or her Twitter account; visit Bear online here, and keep up with hir on Twitter.  If you are interested in booking either or both for an upcoming performance or conference, please visit Phinli to see all of their offerings, or email them.