Transgender author - Kate Bornstein read from her memoir-in-progress

Wearing large rounded glasses, brown slacks, knee-high burnt orange leather boots, and a brown animal print vest that displayed colorful tattoo sleeves adorning both of her arms, transgender author Kate Bornstein read from her memoir-in-progress on Nov. 3.

Sitting on the top step of a folding ladder placed in the center of a cozy living room in Faber House, a Jesuit residence next to Maguire Campus, Bornstein spoke frankly and passionately about growing up as a boy, spending years as an active and high-ranking member in the Church of Scientology, and being estranged from her daughter.....

....Bornstein said her reasons for writing her memoir, titled "Kate Bornstein is a Queer and Pleasant Danger," include completing two "Herculean" tasks left on her bucket list: to reconcile with her daughter, whom she hasn't seen in 16 years, and come to terms with the death of her father, whom she never told that she was transgender....

...Before concluding the reading, Bornstein read an excerpt from her book, "Hello Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws." Suicidal six times in her life, Bornstein gave sincere advice, garnered from her own experiences, to those gathered.

"You do whatever it takes to make your life worth living . . . anything at all," she said. "As long as you're not mean, do anything you want."

Diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, 61-year-old Bornstein is proof that her own advice works....

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