Kate Bornstein, Transgender Activist And Theorist, Receives Support For Cancer Fundraiser

Kate Bornstein has lent her voice and much of her life to advocating for and educating the masses about diverse gender identities and expressions.

She is a groundbreaking author, performer and “advocate for teens, freaks and other outlaws” whose books, like My Gender Workbook and Gender Outlaw, have been critical to furthering gender theory over the last 20 years.

Sadly, the self-described “queer and pleasant danger” was diagnosed with lung cancer in August. Doctors thought Bornstein had been cured after surgery, but in February they discovered that the disease had returned. The good news is that the cancer appears to be curable. The bad news is that the cost of treatment is astronomical, even with Bornstein’s health insurance plan.

To make matters even worse, her treatment is more complicated than most because she has suffered from another kind of cancer — CLL, or Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia — for over fifteen years.

In effort to help Bornstein pay for her treatment, a friend of Kate’s, Laura Vogel, launched a “Go Fund Me” campaign on March 20. As of the publishing of this article, they’ve raised over $59,000 of the targeted $100,000 and the donations are still pouring in.

Bornstein says she was nervous about setting up the campaign page, but Vogel was optimistic. “Kate was very nervous. She’s so used to working very hard to make a living. She works very hard to help people and she makes a living helping people. She actually feels bad about it. She would have never asked for the money on her own,” Vogel told Huff Post Gay Voices. “With Kate’s blessing we set this up. I really don’t think she anticipated this type of response. I had a moment of ‘I told you so’ once we reached the first $10,000. I told you [Kate] that people would come out and support you. It just kept on going up.”

Continue reading at:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/22/kate-bornstein-cancer-fundraiser_n_2926015.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices