Free to shine
Shiny & Free
Really good article - go Kate!
http://www.religiondispatches.org/books/sexandgender/5899/transgender,_scientologist,_“cult_hero”/
A Queer and Pleasant Danger
by Kate Bornstein
Beacon Press , 2012
http://www.religiondispatches.org/books/sexandgender/5899/transgender,_scientologist,_“cult_hero”/
A Queer and Pleasant Danger
by Kate Bornstein
Beacon Press , 2012
Transgender, Scientologist, “Cult Hero”
Why America’s Most Radical Transgender Activist Spent Twelve Years in Scientology, and What It Teaches About the Rest of Us
By Jay Michaelson
<snip>
But what I didn’t know, until reading this book, was that there’s a whole other chapter to Bornstein’s story: as Al Bornstein, he was one of the most elite members of the Church of Scientology. And while several exposes of the “Church” have already appeared, A Queer and Pleasant Danger is one of the most damning, most sympathetic, and most knowledgeable.
QAPD is at least three books in one, each of which is a page-turner. The first part is a powerful, at times painful, autobiography of a transgender woman growing up before the category even existed. In some ways, LGBT-youth-memoir is a conventional narrative, but Bornstein has never been conventional and—Goddess help us—never will be. If QAPD ended at page 54, it would be a must-read for anyone interested in transgender, queer theory, or LGBT lives more generally.
But then there’s part two, on Bornstein’s twelve years in Scientology, and part three, on her eventual liberation, transition, and embrace of her kinky, post-gender, post-fame self. (Bornstein’s new book gives her status as a “cult hero” a whole new meaning.) These are also two complete books, and also indispensable. Where to begin?
<snip>
Now, there are important differences. Bornstein was thrown out of Scientology not for his sexual deviance or some doctrinal dispute, but because he unintentionally exposed a financial scam in which money meant for the ‘Church’ went instead to Hubbard’s Swiss bank account. He was then interrogated, defamed, railroaded out of the organization, and branded a “Suppressive Person”—i.e. a heretic with whom contact is strictly forbidden and who may be opposed by any means necessary. Once again, the rhetoric of religion allows Scientology to extort, deceive, and control—but this is not really a religion, either.