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I tell people that I’ve never been hurt by an honest question, and that’s true: it’s a cruel opinion that hurts, not a question.

— Kate Bornstein Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us (1995)

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More quotes by Kate Bornstein

Standing with freaks never hurt anyone - it’s when we agree that we deserve the oppression and the ridicule that accompanies the freak’s position in the culture - that’s when the wound is mortal.

Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us (1995)

There are only people who are fluidly-gendered, and … the norm is that most of these people continually struggle to maintain the illusion that they are one gender or another.

Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us (1995)

“Gender is not sane. It's not sane to call a rainbow black and white.”

Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us (1995)

They believe (foolishly I think) that the power they have and exert over others is a good thing and they want to hang on to it, they're terrified of losing this stuff. What I'm talking about is what's been called 'male privilege.'

Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us (1995)

If we don't show ourselves the same amount of compassion we show others, we'll eventually come to resent the compassion we have for others. I think there's little enough compassion in the world right now, so we need to grow our own to compensate for that.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Kate Bornstein (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.