PHOTO SANTIAGO FELIPE
Seen recently on E!’s I Am Cait, Kate Bornstein is the original gender outlaw. They are also an author, playwright, performance artist and gender theorist. Having been designated male at birth and then received gender confirmation surgery in 1986, Bornstein identifies as gender non-conforming, saying, “I don’t call myself a woman, and I know I’m not a man”, and uses the gender-neutral pronoun “they,” as well as “she/her”.
Bornstein has also written about having anorexia, being a survivor of PTSD and her diagnosis with borderline personality disorder. Bornstein has chronic lymphocytic leukaemia and in September 2012 was diagnosed with lung cancer. Kate lives in New York City with their partner, the author, performance artist and sex educator Barbara Carrellas, a cat, two dogs and a turtle.