Unfortunately, due to illness, the author is no longer able to speak here on November 30. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience. All ticket buyers will be contacted and refunded in full.

Kate Bornstein delivered a powerful blow to the binary bias with the original 1994 publication of Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us. The first book of gender theory written by a trans person, it’s both a deeply personal and highly philosophical exploration through the vagaries of gender that stands strong as an indispensable handbook on one of today’s most-debated topics.

Kate, who was assigned male at birth, underwent gender confirmation surgery at age thirty-eight in 1986, to become a woman. She loved her transformation, but came to realize that, at her core, she identified as neither male nor female. So she began to wonder: what if there are not two genders, but a whole spectrum? What if the gender binary is not only restricting trans people, but anyone who has ever felt like less than a perfect man or woman?

At its initial publication (when trans people were all but invisible in American society), Gender Outlaw was profoundly ahead of its time. Blending her own biography—which sees a heterosexual male IBM salesperson become a lesbian woman playwright and performance artist—with a provocative investigation into our notions of gender, Kate called not only for tolerance and awareness, but for an entirely new vision of gender.

At a time when the trans community is just starting to find its footing within mainstream American culture, Kate stands as the person who was there from the beginning. From holding her own on sensationalized segments on “Geraldo” all the way up to her recurring appearances on Caitlyn Jenner’s “I Am Cait,” she’s employed unmitigated humor and honesty to help open people’s minds and inspire others to be, if nothing else, themselves.

Bornstein will speak here on the occasion of the publication of a revised and updated edition of Gender Outlaw. Book signing to follow.