-[birds singing]
-[siren wails in the distance]
Do you know that feeling
when you're sitting in a movie theater,
and everyone's laughing at something,
and you just don't get it?
♪ Can't find a better man ♪
I hate everyone else in the world but you.
[Laverne] I never thought
I'd live in a world
where trans people would be celebrated...
[audience applauding]
...on or off the screen.
Thank you, thank you so much
for this moment.
[Laverne] I never thought the media
would stop asking horrible questions...
How do you hide your penis?
[audience laughs]
[Laverne] ...and start treating us
with respect.
You kept it quiet because, you said,
you didn't want to become "othered."
[Laverne] Now, look how far we've come.
[Asia Kate] We have
so much more representation,
in government, in media.
[Laverne] We are everywhere.
[Alexandra] And you never know
what those positive images do
for other people.
You never know.
[Jen] For the first time,
trans people are taking center
of their own storytelling.
[Laverne] At this point,
we're talking, really,
about unprecedented trans visibility.
That's my sister!
Trans people are being m*rder*d
disproportionately, still.
[Tiq] That's the paradox
of our representation, is...
the more we are seen,
the more we are violated.
[Jamie] The more positive representation
there is,
the more confidence the community gains,
which then puts us in more danger.
[Alexandra] I go
into the women's restroom,
then I've committed a crime.
If I go in the men's restroom,
then everybody knows.
[Zackary] I think all of us
in the community
have had those moments of being, like...
is this going to somehow alienate people
who aren't ready yet?
[Susan] Why is it that trans issues
have become, like,
a front and center issue
in the culture wars?
[Zackary] I think capitalizing
on people's fear
is what has landed us
in this moment right now,
and you have hope on one side
and fear on the other.
[Laverne] I think, for a very long time,
the ways in which trans people
have been represented on-screen
have suggested that we're not real,
have suggested that we're mentally ill,
that we don't exist.
And yet, here I am.
Yet here we are,
and we've always been here.
Hit it, maestro.
[band playing]
♪ All of me ♪
♪ Why not take all of me? ♪
♪ Can't you see I'm no good without you? ♪
[Laverne] What's interesting for me
about growing up in Mobile, Alabama,
and then having my first interactions
with what it meant to be transgender
happening on television,
is that even when characters
weren't necessarily trans identified,
I think those characters affected
how I thought of myself as a trans person
and how the general public
probably thinks about trans people.
[audience laughing and applauding]
[Laverne]
And one of those early images for me
was the character of Geraldine
from The Flip Wilson Show.
♪ I can't stop wanting you ♪
Sing the song, Ray!
♪ It's useless to say ♪
[Laverne] I remember I would watch it
with my mom and my brother,
and my mother loved Geraldine
and would laugh at that character,
so it was something that existed
in the realm of humor.
But whenever there was something
"trans" this
or "sex change" that...
[laughing] A sex change operation!
-A sex change operation!
-Right.
I'd better sit down.
[audience laughs]
...I would be very interested,
and I would sort of lean in,
but very, sort of, discreetly.
[audience chuckles]
-Gotcha!
-[screams]
[audience laughs]
I think
one of the first trans representations
I saw in a fictional context
was that episode of The Jeffersons
with Edie Stokes.
It's me, Eddie. Only I'm Edie now.
Say what?
[audience laughs and applauds]
Take a good look.
[Laverne] She was beautiful
and elegant and Black.
[George and audience laugh]
[Laverne] But then also there was
the character that George hired
to say that he was Edie
to, sort of, let Weezie know
that he wasn't cheating.
[audience laughs]
[Laverne] That representation
felt like it existed as a joke
and the same bullying
that I was experiencing at school.
-What's that?
-[audience laughs]
[Laverne] I was like,
"This is not who I am."
You know, I went to church every Sunday
and was a straight A student,
and I won talent shows
with the tap and jazz dance numbers
I choreographed myself. [laughing]
I did.
So, that was, like, who I was,
and my mom wanted me to be successful,
and I was being groomed to be successful,
and then I'd turn on the television
and I'd see...
[audience laughing]
...these images that don't seem to comport
with, like, the person that I knew I was.
[audience continues laughing]
And so,
everything that was trans about me,
it made me just hate.
I... I have to leave.
[audience continues laughing]
I'm gonna go.
As a trans person,
you have the most sensitive radar
to tell the difference
between you're laughing with us...
In the phone book,
you were listed as F. Deveau.
[chuckles] The F stands for "Frank," hon.
That's me.
...or you're laughing at us.
This is the men's room.
[exhales] I know. I'm a dude.
-[gasps]
-[audience laughs]
Trans jokes? Really?
Hello, Joel. I'm Jackie.
[Bianca] Most of us
have a good sense of humor.
We've had to have a good sense of humor.
-Why am I being arrested?
-[audience laughs]
I told you, it's called
an unclassified misdemeanor.
But we don't want to be the butt of jokes.
-Wait a minute, I forgot something.
-What?
-Can you talk like a woman?
-[high-pitched] Like this?
That's awful.
Can't you do better than that?
[normal voice] No.
Every trans person carries within themself
a history of trans representation
just in terms
of what they've seen themselves.
Coop.
Dennis?
Why don't you live with me,
and I'll be your wife?
[Jen] What trans people
really need, though,
is a sense of a broader history
of that representation,
so that they can, kind of,
find themselves in it.
I think it's just fascinating
that some of the earliest moving images
were cross-dressed images.
When you watch,
it very much feels like womanhood is silly
and is to be mocked.
When you think about the time,
that time historically,
cross-dressing was illegal,
so that someone who decided to transgress
gender expectations in real life
was often harassed and arrested.
[Alexandra] If we're talking about
in this country, in American cinema,
we've been around
since there was, uh, footage.
You just have to look for us.
[Susan] One of the films
that is often credited
with inventing
what's called the dynamic montage.
[soft piano music playing]
And that was a D. W. Griffith film,
and the story is of Judith of Bethulia,
who's a good Jewish woman
who lives in Jerusalem,
then the invading army is coming.
And Judith, to save the city,
pretends to be a concubine
of Holofernes, the general.
And while she is in his tent,
she takes a sword and cuts his head off.
There's a claim that this is
one of the first films that we know of
where the cut in the film
is used to advance the story.
And there's a kind of, like, trans
or, you know, gender non-binary character
who is kind of circulating
around the cut in the narrative.
It's almost like the figure
of the cut trans body,
the eunuch
who's been castrated or emasculated,
who is a cut figure,
presides over...
the invention of the cinematic cut.
It's like trans and cinema
have grown up together.
It's like we have always
been present on-screen,
and it's not just coincidental.
I mean, there's something
really deeply connected.
Can we all just talk about D. W. Griffith
for a minute?
As the Missy Elliott song would say,
we need to just back it up for a minute.
The fact that we study
and teach D. W. Griffith
without saying a word
about the representation...
Like, I'm glad I didn't go to film school.
Because if I had seen Birth of a Nation,
when they got to that blackface moment,
when this guy springs up
from behind a bush
wanting to r*pe the white woman,
I...
That would have been it for me
at... at film school.
Right? That... that would have been
my last day.
Not only is D. W. Griffith
incredibly r*cist,
but he understands
that you can turn
gender-nonconforming people
into the joke of your story.
It's like, "Oh, yeah,
great, D. W. Griffith,
you, you know, r*cist piece of sh*t,
you... you've invented
this stereotype in film. Well done."
[Susan] If you look
at that early silent film,
A Florida Enchantment,
it foregrounds questions of gender change
and using blackface
while you're using
gendered cross-dressing.
You know, just, like,
it's these sort of twin fascinations
that, you know, they're always sort of
tangled up with each other somehow.
[Brian] It's interesting
when you look at things historically.
You know, in terms
of transmasculine experience.
Like, you know, first, there's no such
vocabulary back in the day of...
of trans anything.
In A Florida Enchantment she eats a seed,
and then, like, voilà,
she... she wakes up, she's a man.
And, you know, not only
were we looking at gender expression,
but at also the r*cist expectations.
So, the white person becomes
this high-society dandy,
like the ideal of what a man should be,
but then her handmaid
is forced to take the seed.
She becomes this aggressive valet
who's violent.
And so, even
in this gender-transgressive fantasy,
you still have
white characters in blackface
playing these horribly fantastical
versions of Black people.
[Yance] There are lots of ugly things
about our history
that feel like an as*ault, I think.
But I think we have to know them.
I think we have to learn them.
[speaking indistinctly]
[Laverne] There's all sorts of theories
around the history
-of Black male comedians doing drag...
-[Foxx sniffs]
...in that needing to be
a rite of passage.
Your daddy would want you in this.
Try this bitch on.
-I ain't gonna be able to do it, Foxx.
-Okay.
Well, I guess you'll just remain
the, uh, mid-level comedian, just...
killin' them in the club in the hood,
but, uh...
white folk ain't gonna know
who the f*ck you are.
So be it.
[Laverne] There is a history of Black men
in America
-being painted as hyper-masculine...
-[woman screaming]
...and almost predatory
in relationship to white womanhood.
Take your hands off the white lady.
And there is a history
of emasculating Black men in this country.
Like, a literal history,
during sl*very and during Jim Crow,
when Black men were lynched,
often their genitalia was cut off.
And so, a Black man donning a dress
is this emasculating thing.
Oh, no. Wait.
[screams] Where is it?
[Laverne] And I do feel
like the relationship
that a lot of Black people have had to me
is about that legacy of trauma
-around...
-[screams]
...the historic emasculation of Black men
in America.
[audience cheering]
[Laverne] Putting a Black man in a dress,
in some people's minds,
takes away the thr*at.
"Oh, we can laugh now."
I can't think... I can't even tell you
how many times I've been in public space,
particularly early in my transition,
in New York City, where pe--
when I would walk into a subway car,
and people would just burst into laughter.
As if my existence on that subway car
was just a joke.
And I think people are-- have been trained
to have that reaction.
[audience laughs, cheers, and applauds]
Hi, Al. It's me, Thad.
[audience laughs]
If I'm not laughing,
is it a joke, you know?
It lends itself to this idea
that we're just comedy,
that we're just some kind of freaks,
that we just playin' dress up
in order to make other people laugh.
Ooh!
[Laverne] These images are so disparaging
towards all women.
[screams]
[Laverne] And we see comedians
dressing up as women
in order to get a job, in Tootsie...
I'm Edward, Kimberly.
[Laverne] ...or affordable housing,
in the case of Bosom Buddies.
Now, just watch me work.
[audience laughs]
[Laverne] These are all real obstacles
for actual trans people.
Hello.
Hello.
For me, as a child in the '60s...
[piano playing]
...I didn't know what trans was.
♪ We're dressed as ballerinas ♪
♪ Of course, you know we're not ♪
[Bianca] What I knew was,
when I spent time with my brother
and my father...
Oh!
[Bianca] ...they laughed
at The Three Stooges.
The Three Stooges, really?
I'm a Lucy girl.
So, naturally,
when I saw film and television,
I identified with the heroine.
When you're this q*eer kid in the suburbs,
and you're dying for glamour,
and you're watching Dressed To k*ll,
you don't see the misogyny,
you just see beauty in motion and...
[inhales] ...suspense.
And there's this sequence
with Angie Dickinson wearing all creams,
and she's got her beige Isotoners on,
and just looking breathtaking.
She sees this hot guy,
and she's gonna pick him up.
She's very unhappy with her husband.
And then she gets on the elevator...
and suddenly...
[suspenseful music plays]
[gasps]
-...there's Michael Caine...
-[screaming]
...in a Shake-N-Go wig...
[laughing] ...and big sunglasses,
and a trench coat...
[whimpering] Oh, no.
Oh...
No!
...and murders her.
We look at that now,
and we say, "This is atrocious,"
but when I was a kid, it was like,
"I'm Angie Dickinson. That's me.
That's what...
I don't know what the f*ck."
[dramatic music playing]
For decades,
Hollywood has taught audiences
how to react to trans people.
[man] Oh, my God, no.
[pants] You've been a broad all along,
right, Barzell?
A g*dd*mn broad?
A g*dd*mn ugly broad, Barzell!
And sometimes, they're being taught
that the way to react to us is fear.
[man laughing]
No, Ronnie! No! [screams]
[Nick] That we're dangerous,
that were psychopaths,
that we're serial K*llers,
that we must be deviants or perverts.
[screams]
[Nick] Why else would you wear a dress
if you're a man?
[Laverne] Alfred Hitchcock
seems to be obsessed
with people who traverse
gender stereotypes
being... murderers.
[woman screams]
[audience screaming]
What's going on, Alfred?
From the grave.
Talk to us.
Do you know
why he's called "Buffalo Bill"?
Please tell me. The newspapers won't say.
Well, it started as a bad joke
in Kansas City homicide. They said...
"This one likes to skin his humps."
Okay, I love Silence of the Lambs.
I'm sorry.
It's a great film, and it's a great book.
I know it's problematic.
-["Goodbye Horses" playing on stereo]
-♪ Goodbye, horses ♪
[sobbing]
[Bianca] But watching that,
and Jodie Foster says:
There's no correlation in the literature
between transsexualism and v*olence.
Transsexuals are very passive.
It's like, okay,
so you get that this is not...
a transsexual, a trans person.
You get that.
Yeah, but we're not passive.
Like, why can't you just say
we're not psychopathic murderers?
We're not serial K*llers.
We don't do that sh*t.
Jodie. [sighs]
-[dog growls, whimpering]
-It rubs the lotion on its skin.
-It does this whenever it's told.
-[woman panting]
Mister, my family'll pay cash.
Whatever ransom you're askin' for,
they'll pay it.
[Jen] I was about to go
through transition,
and I worked up the courage
to tell one of my colleagues,
and she's a very, very smart woman,
very, very talented musician,
very well-educated, very worldly,
and she looked at me and goes,
"You mean like Buffalo Bill?"
Like, her only point of reference
was this disgusting,
psychotic serial k*ller
who hunts women
in order to k*ll them and skin them
in order to wear their bodies,
to literally appropriate the female form,
which is exactly,
like, the feminist, like, argument
against the existence of trans women
is we're trying to appropriate
the female form,
and here he was doing it literally,
physically.
[woman] Why won't you answer me? Please!
And, you know, she regrets it now.
She looks back,
and she's horrified that she said that,
because she knows trans people now,
and she knows the issues,
and she knows me.
But the fact that that was
her only reference point,
that that was her only template
for understanding,
was a sick, psychotic serial k*ller.
It hurts. It just hurts.
[singing "Un bel dì vedremo"]
[Rain] As a young trans woman,
when people would get to know me,
one of their questions was,
"Have you seen M. Butterfly?"
And I was always just like...
René...
please let me keep my clothes on.
[Rain] I kind of clocked it
as this spy pretending to be this woman.
But it was just one of those things
where you're just like,
"Why am I being asked about M. Butterfly?"
Look at me.
[Rain] Is it because I'm Asian?
You're looking at the Asian-American
trans representation.
There-- There isn't any.
[Laverne] According to a study from GLAAD,
80 percent of Americans
don't actually personally know
someone who is transgender.
So most of the information
that Americans get
about who transgender people are,
what our lives are and are about,
comes from the media.
[angrily] Why can't you be a man?
[Nick] Trans people have also been taught
how to think about themselves.
We're not raised, usually, in a family
where other trans people are around us,
so when we're trying to figure out
who we are,
we look to the media
to try to figure it out,
because just like
the 80 percent of Americans
who say they don't know a trans person,
that's often true of trans people as well.
We don't know a trans person
when figuring out who we are,
so we're looking to the media,
to figure out, like, "Who's like us?"
I was really excited when The L Word said
they were gonna bring
a transmasculine character onto the show.
Trans men were a part
of the lesbian community,
and it seemed awesome.
[Zeke] Max is the first recurring
transmasculine character
on a television series.
Are you doing hormones?
No.
Not yet.
Then, Max starts testosterone.
Hey, don't do that.
-Stop that.
-Delete it.
Don't touch my f*cking computer. Stop it.
Hey! Don't touch--
[Zeke] And Max goes
from being nice and likable
to a raging a-hole.
You're my girlfriend,
and this is my party.
You shouldn't be dancing
with some other dude.
I'm gonna dance with whoever the f*ck
I wanna dance with.
You notice that, like, "Oh, yeah,
I'm definitely... I'm more frustrated."
But to that level...
It's the testosterone.
It, like, amps me up.
It paints it in a bad light.
I feel like, if I didn't work out,
I'd wanna break someone's face.
[grunting]
[Brian] As somebody who was transitioning
at the time of this show,
that was problematic for me... [laughing]
...uh, because The L Word
is a lesbian show...
It just saddens me to see
so many of our strong butch girls
giving up their womanhood to be a man.
...and so, they're looking at trans people
through a lesbian lens.
Why can't you be the butchest butch
in the world and keep your body?
Because I wanna feel whole.
I want the outside of me
to match the inside of me.
You'll be givin' up
the most precious thing in the world.
What, my tits?
No, being a woman.
[Brian] I think that best encapsulates
the writers and producers of The L Word's
approach to Max,
is that they are seeing trans men
increasingly enter the lesbian community
and that they are traitors to feminism.
Does that mean... Have I got the job?
Welcome aboard, Max.
Welcome to Intechmode.
Wow. Thanks, man.
[Zeke] We're not supposed to root for Max.
Whoa, that's exciting.
We're supposed to root against Max.
Are you gonna sell out
and start sleeping with the enemy?
[Leo] How it made people feel
is a part of our history.
What we've learned from it
and how we portray trans characters
now... from now on
has-- is, in a big part, due to Max.
[Jen] There is a one-word solution
to almost all the problems in trans media.
We just need more,
and that way,
the occasional clumsy representation
wouldn't matter as much
because it wouldn't be all that there is.
You wanna know about my childhood? Okay.
I had no friends, all right?
I wore too much makeup.
All the kids around me thought I was evil.
Now look at me! Nurse Nan.
David, I cannot be the villain forever.
My family and I
would always watch movies together.
[man] Doctor!
[Rain] We were watching Soapdish...
This is Dr. Franz Blau
of the sex-change clinic
in Bethesda, Maryland.
...but once we got to the end...
Before she came to our little clinic,
she was...
Milton Moorehead of Syosset, Long Island.
Hello.
[screams] No!
...my family got really quiet...
[Montana] No!
[Rain] ...because it gave them
a confirmation
that if I chose a certain life...
She's a boy.
[Rain] ...I would be the bad guy.
Yeah, well we knew that.
[Rain] Or...
I wouldn't be loved.
I was seven or eight at the time, and...
[sighs]
And we never really talked about it
after that, but...
I remember the next day,
my mom would try to...
get me to wear more masculine clothes.
[crying] It's what I am.
[yelling] What's this
between your legs, huh?
Tell me, lady!
[inhales deeply]
It's an accident.
If I had the courage, I'd cut it off.
You'd still be a man.
-A man!
-No!
[Laverne] When you are a member
of a marginalized community,
most of the film and television
is not made with you in mind.
And so, if you are a person of color,
an LGBTQ person,
a person who's an immigrant,
um, a person with a disability,
you develop a critical awareness
because you understand
that the images that you're seeing
are not your life.
Forgive me, Papa.
[carriage approaching]
Wait!
-Wait!
-[Laverne giggles]
I giggle 'cause it's like,
I'm a Black trans girl from Alabama,
and, like, I live for Yentl.
Um...
[laughing] I don't know if I'm
the target audience for... for Yentl.
Welcome to our yeshiva.
I'm accepted?
[Laverne] I was young when I saw it,
and it embodied so many of my longings
to be seen for who I was,
but needing to fit in
in a traditional way,
to, sort of, get by at the time.
I mean, the song "Will Someone Ever
Look At Me That Way?" was, like, my jam.
♪ Look at how he looks at her ♪
♪ Will someone ever look at me that way? ♪
[Laverne] I connected to that
because I was a girl
that no one saw as a girl at the time.
And now someone has looked at me that way.
[laughs]
And also Victor/Victoria.
A woman pretending to be a man
pretending to be a woman?
-Ridiculous.
-It's-- It's preposterous.
In fact, it's so preposterous,
no one would ever believe it.
[Nick] In 1982,
I graduated from high school,
and that was the year Yentl came out,
Victor/Victoria came out.
[singing]
[Nick]
And I saw those movies so many times.
[audience applauds, gasps]
-[cheering]
-It's a guy.
Yay!
[Nick] For whatever reason,
we are creatures
who want to see our stories
reflected back to us,
starting with cave paintings to 3D IMAX.
We want to see ourselves
reflected back to us in a story.
-[woman] Adam Torres.
-[Nick] The problem with trans men
is they've largely been invisible
in the media...
♪ Let's just breathe ♪
[Nick] ...and we're only recently starting
to see portrayals of non-binary people.
-My pronouns are they, theirs, and them.
-Okay.
And certainly,
being invisible is a privilege
compared to the type of transphobia
that has been written
into trans women characters.
I'm a married man.
So am I.
[group laughs]
[Nick] But I work
with a lot of trans boys,
and when they look to the screen
to see themselves reflected back,
they see almost nothing.
[boy] Hurry up!
All right.
[Elliot] My parents used to call me Scout
because of To k*ll a Mockingbird.
[upbeat music plays]
I resonated with tomboys
because I didn't think
that there was another option.
So I was like,
"Oh, that's... Yeah, I get that."
[Brian] I was born in the early '80s,
so a lot of what I understood
about the world
was coming to me through TV and films.
Like, Just One Of The Guys was something
that would come on TV on Saturdays.
-Who do you think you are? Tootsie?
-No.
Okay, Yentl.
What do you want to be? A rabbi?
[Tiq] Oh, my God,
I remember seeing Just One Of The Guys
when I was really, really little.
She decides to pretend to be a boy
so that, you know,
her writing can be taken seriously.
You're a pretty girl.
You could be a model.
Be a model?
Why? Because a pretty girl
can't possibly have a brain?
They played with this idea of transness
as a way of occupying a space
that you necessarily
aren't supposed to have.
[Brian] When I saw that,
part of me was, like, very excited.
In my imagination, like,
"That would be... Yes!
New haircut, got some jeans,
got the cool backpack.
All the friends wanna hang out
with this cool...
But when I fall in love, I better hurry up
and become a girl again."
-I'm not what you think.
-[scoffs] What does that mean?
[laughs]
[laughs] It's a very long story.
And all the conflict is coming
because of the lie.
You're gay.
[scoffs]
I'm not gay.
Instead of just having a conversation...
[laughs] ...like a person,
"Hey, listen. I gotta tell you,
this is what I'm doin',"
it's like, "I have tits."
Where do you get off having tits?
[gasps]
What are you, a demon?
[screams] He's a woman!
[laughs] I nev-- I never quite
could wrap my mind around
why they thought that was the way to go.
Come on, blue. Let's play ball.
[Brian] So it's really
a women's empowerment message
packaged in a transmasculine experience,
which is so invalidating.
[man] He's a transsexual.
He's a g*dd*mn girl.
I remember specifically seeing
the Jerry Springer episode with Reno.
Child, Reno was on Jerry Springer,
comes out, you know,
this beautiful little Black guy.
He's out there with his girlfriend.
He's like, "I got something to tell you."
I'm a girl.
-[audience gasping]
-[laughs]
It... That just... That blew my mind.
[girlfriend] You are a girl?
-This is a girl?
-"This"?
What you mean, "this"? You don't got
no reason to disrespect me on this show.
[Marquise] Not only was Reno
the first time that I saw
someone transmasculine on television,
it was the first time, clearly,
that I was seeing somebody Black
and transmasculine on television.
What do you call yourself, a trans...?
-Transgender.
-[girlfriend] That.
[Marquise] At that point,
I'm high school age
and in and out of the shelter system.
I'm couch surfing.
Typical Black q*eer trans stuff
in New York City.
And...
I don't even believe
that someone like me really exists,
so to see this image, you know,
in front of me on TV,
I mean, it-- it really was empowering.
I think we don't see
as much representation of trans men
as we do trans women
because people don't think trans men
are as sensational.
I'm a proud trans man, Dr. Bailey,
but I like for people to get to know me
before they find out
my private medical history.
Of course.
I think, also, trans men
are not as recognizable.
[Donald Tr*mp] ...that America must put
its own citizens first.
[Brian] There's this idea that people...
they don't know any trans men,
or that they don't really exist
because people don't visibly see them.
Testosterone. You can't just pack it up
and put it in a drawer.
You feel me? [laughs]
Well, actually, you can,
as long as it's not past
its expiration date.
Trans women vastly outnumber trans men
in terms of depictions and portrayals
in the media,
uh, even though the numbers,
the actual numbers, of real trans people
are pretty evenly split
between men and women,
just like with cis people,
but we see far more depictions
of trans women.
And, of course,
that's partly because women overall,
therefore including trans women,
are a more commodifiable asset.
I was so viciously harassed
on the streets of New York
early in my transition,
and I would arm myself.
It was warpaint,
going out into the world
and just wanting to feel at my very best
because I knew I would be misgendered,
I knew that I would immediately
feel unsafe just walking down the street,
and that was certainly the case.
And so, um, I armored myself,
and makeup was a way to do that.
["You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)"
playing]
I think that one woman's armor
becomes another woman's adornment
in the sense that
a kind of Kardashian aesthetic,
this hyper-feminine, plump lips,
the big hair, the extensions
the silicone-injected curves of the body,
in some ways, might be a reflection
of a change in aesthetics
that comes out of the kind of gay men
who are often doing
the styling for celebrities.
♪ You mean I've been dancin'
On the floor, darlin' ♪
[Jen] And that, for them,
it comes out of the street queens
that they know from the clubs.
And for them, it comes out of,
ultimately, the sex workers,
who have to hyper-feminize their body
in order to compete for clients
in order to survive.
[woman] Now turn.
[Jen] And, of course, they're then
imitating an older version of femininity
that they learned that men like,
you know, from movies and TV,
and it kind of creates
this ultimate cycle.
But a lot of people will look
at trans women's performance of femininity
and see it as somehow reinforcing
the worst patriarchal stereotypes
of women,
and I think it's really unfair
and ahistorical
to foist that same perspective
on people who are just trying to survive.
Cute little old man, if you want a boy,
I can be a boy.
And if you want a girl, I can be a girl.
Hell, I can be whatever you want me to be.
Really?
[laughs]
I've been a prost*tute, prost*tute 1,
prost*tute 2, call girl, hooker, you know?
This is kind of embarrassing to say,
but I'm a virgin too.
And your friends thought
that we might like each other.
-You're a virgin?
-[prost*tute] Mm-hmm.
[sighs] You know what?
I think... that you are not a virgin.
And I think you're a prost*tute.
[Jazzmun laughs] But, um...
um, at the same time...
uh, at... at a point, I felt limited.
I felt like, "Okay, what's next?"
Is there anything next, for me personally?
GLAAD took a look
at 134 episodes of television
where a transgender character
was brought on
just to be a guest star character,
and what we found in those portrayals
was that the most common profession
shown for a transgender character
was sex worker.
What, you wanna suck my d*ck now?
What?
You want me to take mine out?
You wanna put it in your mouth?
It is true that in the real world,
many transgender women, particularly,
are pushed into sex work
because of the employment discrimination
that transgender people face.
The unemployment rate
for transgender people
is three times the national average,
and four times the national average
if you're a trans person of color.
So there are contextual and social reasons
why some trans women
are engaging in sex work,
but when it's shown on television,
and no explanation is given as to why,
because it's just what trans women do.
I told him,
"You better get that thing out of my ass,
or I'm gonna sh*t on it!"
[group laughing]
I... I am paying a fortune
to live in a neighborhood
that's trendy by day and tr*nny by night.
-tr*nny?
-Transsexuals.
Chicks with dicks.
Boobs on top, balls down below.
I don't get the appeal there.
It's the other white meat.
[group laughing]
You know,
I've played a sex worker a few times.
Are you a lady of the night? A courtesan?
I don't know what you're talking about.
I'm a goddess and I'm a f*cking model.
Now, do you wanna go on a date with me
or not?
Sure.
[Trace] Not that there's anything wrong
with doing sex work for a living,
but it's just not all that we are.
[sighs]
Hi.
And as a former sex worker,
I feel like I can speak to that.
And if you're only seeing us
as one thing...
Oh, you're so sweet.
[Trace] ...without any life
outside of that,
people are never gonna get to see us
as a whole person.
DOA is Mark Halsey. Bunch of s*ab wounds.
Mark, so a tr*nny pross.
No, he's just a snappy dresser.
That was a statement,
like, I know he's a tra...
[Nick] Unfortunately, Hollywood
has spent many, many years,
especially on police shows
and hospital shows,
perpetrating the transgender
victim narrative,
and it usually falls
into a couple of different tropes.
One, someone is m*rder*d
because they're transgender.
Or the other version,
in the hospital drama,
is they come into the ER,
and their hormones are k*lling them.
Or the trans character is dying
from some cancer
that's affiliated with their birth sex.
-We think you have testicular cancer.
-What?
I was on a lot of hospital shows.
I d*ed a lot. They kept k*lling me.
-Breast cancer?
-[doctor] I'm sorry.
I'm really--
So, the hormones I've been taking
are essentially giving me cancer?
[doctor] Yes.
Trans people don't die
from their life-saving alternatives
to the gender containers
they've been assigned.
Are you saying if I become a woman,
I could die?
That's not what kills us.
You have prostate cancer.
[Alexandra] Code Black and Chicago Med,
I actually booked...
[chuckles] ...like, in the same day.
It's pus. Oh, my God, that's...
that's all pus.
-Wait, what do you mean, pus?
-[doctor] Infection.
[Alexandra] It was pretty crazy.
I-I booked them so fast
that I didn't even realize
the story lines were similar.
Both patients
ended up having cancer, and...
I mean, they were literally
almost the same story line.
I spent nearly my entire life
feeling at w*r with my gender.
Figures that the one piece
I didn't get rid of...
is what's gonna k*ll me.
[camera shutter clicking]
I've d*ed so many times,
I can't even count, on camera.
♪ Just listen ♪
♪ All you people look at me ♪
♪ Like I'm a little girl... ♪
[Candis] My first, like, big role
was on CSI.
It was a high dance role.
So, they saw me audition,
and then they thought,
"Oh, well, we could...
use Candis
as... you said, what? What? Trans?
Okay."
[straining] Go!
Our Jane Doe's heavier than she looks.
[Candis] You know, I'm getting wheeled
out of the bathroom, and they're all like,
"Wow, her hands are really big.
Look at those huge feet."
She's had her breasts surgically enhanced.
[Candis] And I'm sitting there, dead,
rolling my eyes.
[laughs] Like, I cannot believe
I'm dealing with this.
Better make that a John Doe.
I wanted to sit up off the table
and be like, "You guys, that's bullshit.
That is so stupid. Come on."
You know what I mean?
But I was just like,
"You know what? Let it go."
What do you think, Sid?
Are we looking at a hate crime?
[inhales sharply] Transgendered showgirl
drowned in a public toilet?
Sound like love to you?
The way that she ends up dying,
it was so violent and so scary.
-And it was that...
-[showgirl] Stop!
...story that, for some reason,
writers... would write,
producers would want to produce,
directors would want to direct,
because that's the story
that people see in the media all the time.
[Candis] Well, I got a call
from Ryan Murphy.
He said, "I have this idea
for a story line. Would you do it?"
And I was like, "Oh, my God,
Nip/Tuck, I'll totally do it."
And I read the story line, and I was like,
"Oh, that's an interesting story line."
I was kind of creeped out about it.
I want you to give me
a sex-change operation.
I wanna be a man.
[scoffs]
[Candis] It was weird for me
reversing back on camera to a boy,
and putting on a wig,
and trying to strap my... my breasts down.
[laughs] It was kinda hard
with these big gazungas.
And if there's anything
this experience has taught me, it's...
that the penis does not make the man.
It's what's in here.
[coughs and laughs] Jesus.
In so many ways,
the trans story lines on that show
epitomize some of the problematic
representations of trans folks.
You know, I don't think my mother would
approve of me drinking during therapy.
Do you?
It isn't therapy.
And your mother isn't here.
What are you, a pedophile?
I put an alarm on this house
to keep monsters out,
when, shockingly, the true monster
was right in front of my face
the entire time!
[Laverne] We didn't know Ava was trans
until the end of that first season,
and so, I just thought,
"This woman's crazy."
And then we realize she's trans,
and so that is the big reveal.
Bite me.
How hard?
[grunts]
[breathing heavily]
You started it.
You're gonna finish it.
No, no, no, no. No, no! Not that.
You wanna be conquered?
[Laverne] Those scenes in films
are deeply problematic
because I think they send messages to men
that, like, eventually if you keep trying
hard enough, a woman will relent. So...
She's...
basically... I mean, to me, she's r*ped.
Uh, it's just... It's just a lot of...
It's just really hard.
It's really...
It was really hard to watch.
And then he stops and runs out,
and she's like, "Oh, am I not
woman enough for you?" she says.
And then we cut to the next scene,
and he's entering a room, and he says:
Ava's a man.
It was about the depth of her vag*na.
Um, and he's a surgeon and...
[exhales]
So, okay. So, I need to...
Just even talking about this
as a trans person, even like...
It just... It's so violent. It feels so...
It's so hard to talk about.
I-I can't... I'm-- I'm, like, cringing
and, like, I wanna cry talking about it.
I wanna cry talking about this narrative,
because it's-- it's...
It's just horrible.
It's just... it's... it's...
This is what happens to us.
This is what happens when we watch,
and I think that, like...
I wonder if anyone, when they were
constructing these story lines
thought about the trans people watching.
I don't know.
Who are you?
[Zeke] I was 11
when Boys Don't Cry came out,
so I didn't see it at the time,
but I remember it being in the zeitgeist.
[presenter]
Hilary Swank in Boys Don't Cry.
[Zeke] And I remember watching
Hilary Swank win the Oscar.
We have come a long way.
-[woman] Yes!
-[audience cheers and applauds]
[Zeke] And I remember them playing a clip.
I was born with this weirdness,
sort of like a birth defect.
I mean, it's actually not that rare,
but these doctors are trying to fix it.
I have really weird stuff too.
[Zeke] This is before I really knew
that trans men existed,
and watching the film recently,
I felt super connected to Brandon.
You know, to go...
bumper surfing.
Right? To be drinking beers,
to be opening doors for girls...
And he gets to live that.
Nothing can go wrong if we're together.
My girlfriend at the time said,
"Want me to come?"
"No, I have to see this alone."
"You sure? This could be painful."
I'm like, "I have to do this alone."
And I went to the theater on the Carlton,
near Yonge Street in Toronto,
and I went in and watched that movie,
and I was...
blown away.
-[both panting]
-[over radio] ♪ Boys don't cry ♪
♪ I would tell you that I loved you ♪
♪ If I thought that you would stay ♪
It resonated so deeply for me.
[Brian] It took me a long time
to watch it,
but then when I did, it was like...
terrifying.
[Brandon] All right, I'm sorry.
Wait, I'm sorry to put you through this.
-Wait!
-[teen] Unstrap his belt.
I'll do it! I'll do it!
Tom, just turn the light off. I'll do it!
It was hard to watch.
It was really hard to watch.
I mean, you know, there's a r*pe scene
in there that's very brutal,
but then there's a moment before the r*pe
that I think was literally...
my worst nightmare.
Come on, I'm holding you until you look.
[Lana crying] No!
Look!
[screams] Leave him alone!
[Brian] Like, it was just... That was...
That was a lot to try to process,
as somebody who is, you know...
going through something similar.
It's like, I don't ever want that.
This is something that could happen.
I don't ever want that to happen.
[Laverne] After I saw that film,
I was like, "Oh, my God, I'm gonna die."
[woman screaming]
Where the f*ck is she?
[Laverne] I hear people say,
"But it's based on a true story."
But why is this the kind of story
that gets told over and over again?
John, she has nothing to do with it.
[g*nsh*t]
[g*nsh*t]
I didn't relate to the film as much
because I had seen the documentary first,
and that was horrific.
[reporter] A relative discovered
the m*rder victims Friday
on this farmstead south of Humboldt.
The victims were Teena Brandon of Lincoln,
Phillip DeVine of Fairfield, Iowa,
and Lisa Lambert of Humboldt.
[Mickey] But there was also
the Phillip DeVine erasure
from Boys Don't Cry.
[man] If you can imagine the terror
of sitting in that other room,
listening to two people die,
and knowing, he had to know, he was next.
There was a Black man there
who got k*lled,
who was, like, his buddy,
who was a friend, an ally to him,
and that guy
was completely erased from the film.
And that changed...
that changed the film for me.
You know? So, um...
Because it's this-- it's--
it's the erasure of-- of Black people.
So it's like you can't have, like,
q*eer trans people and Blackness
in the same space at the same time.
So, what's it say
about my q*eer trans Black ass?
Again, this is taking away representation.
They're telling me that I can't exist
in my Blackness and my queerness
and my transness.
I can't bring all of this in
at the same time.
[crowd shouting]
[Laverne] In the film Stonewall,
about the 1969 uprising,
we again see a whitewashing of history.
[yells]
[glass shatters]
[yells] Come on!
-Gay power!
-[cheering]
Stonewall was a bar
for hustlers and street queens.
It was not, like, you know,
this respectability bar
where preppy, white gay men went.
[chuckling] That's not what Stonewall was,
based on my understanding of history.
And it was really people
who didn't have anything to lose
who were just tired
of being harassed by the police.
[crowd yelling]
You see, in the early '70s,
the gay rights movement not wanting
to have anything to do with trans people.
Y'all better quiet down.
[crowd yelling]
[Laverne] Sylvia, Marsha,
street queens, femmes
started the gay rights movement.
I will no longer put up with this sh*t.
I have been beaten.
I have had my nose broken.
I have been thrown in jail.
I have lost my job.
I have lost my apartment
for gay liberation,
and you all treat me this way?
What the f*ck's wrong with you all?
Think about that!
[Yance] Assimilation
is the American narrative,
and trans people make it really difficult
for some people in the q*eer community
to assimilate.
And so, what happens?
That section of the q*eer community
is like, "You don't exist." Pfft.
You know, I think sometimes
it's people who feel closest
to something that frightens them
who are the most vicious,
and some of the most transphobic reactions
that I know of
actually come from gay men.
[reporter] A 26-year-old ex-GI
arrives home from Denmark,
where doctors converted him into a woman.
[Susan] There was actually a letter
that Christine Jorgensen received
from somebody who identified as gay,
and it included a... a razor blade
in the letter, and said, you know, like,
"Why don't you finish the job
that the doctor started?"
You know?
[grunts]
Trans history changes in 1952,
when Christine Jorgensen
becomes a global media celebrity.
[reporters clamoring]
Thank you very much.
[Susan]
She was not the first trans person,
not the first person
to have genital surgery or take hormones,
but she was the first person
to become globally famous for doing that.
This was the image of transgender
for a generation of people.
[Laverne] Christine Jorgensen is pivotal.
She set the ways in which the conversation
around trans identity was being had.
[Tom] How do you explain an article
that appeared in New West magazine
over the holiday season last year?
It was about transsexuals,
and there were some horrible stories
in there
about women who, uh... uh...
would feel the phantom penis coming back
and had great psychological problems,
or problems in urination,
or problems sexually,
or psychological problems
caused by surgery
that possibly was done
without proper counseling.
Well, there's your answer.
You just used the word counseling.
We have, and it's a demand,
gender identity clinics.
People always refer to the surgery.
The surgery is sort of an anticlimax.
-It's done after all the other things.
-[Tom] To those who have it, possibly.
But to those who do not, that's the word
that comes through in the papers.
-Surgery, cutting, removing.
-[Christine] Yeah, right.
-[Tom] Okay?
-Right.
This focus on surgery
became the ways in which trans people
have really been talked about
for 60 years.
What's going on here,
and what's going on...
[audience] There.
The skin of the penis is used to create
what appears to be a vag*na.
-Is that correct?
-That's correct.
How'd you feel about your body
when you were back then?
It wasn't my body.
And is it acting like a penis?
Yeah.
"When did you come out?
What was your name before?
What'd you look like? How'd your family
take it? Who do you have sex with?"
How did we get on this subject?
Turn around. Flip. Go.
Okay. Here, everybody look.
[laughs] It's definitely a man.
You make comments, you make questions.
Now we have the right to ask you.
[woman] What'd you pay for those?
I want to know what mine are worth.
[audience] Oh!
[Ser] It's sort of like a circus.
"She's really a man."
"Men who used to be women."
Are you a man? Are you a woman?
Are you an "it"? What are you?
[Ser] Dun, dun.
[laughs] Step right up. Poke, poke.
Everyone, five dollars.
That's how it felt watching it.
[Trace] It was like a car crash,
because I would...
I couldn't look away. Like, I would watch.
And know that there was
something inside of me
that connected to these women,
but it was also really salacious.
What would a reaction be from a guy?
-What is your reaction?
-My reaction right now?
-[woman] Mm-hmm.
-I find you all very attractive.
-Uh...
-But you're not...
-ready to just dive into bed.
-No, no, I'm not saying that, but...
You know?
Well, certainly not here, no.
[Laverne] There's this episode
of the Gary Collins show
with these beautiful trans women
who were showgirls at the time.
And he's trying to be very delicate
with the interview,
but he's sort of saying, "Well, you know,
I-I-I saw these images of you, and...
and-- and there seems to be no suggestion
of male genitalia."
[Gary] I mean, that may not be very,
you know, gentlemanly, but I...
What... what happens?
What... what happens to it?
-[group chuckles]
-[audience laughs]
[Laverne] And that reminds me
of when Caroline Cossey
was on The Arsenio Hall Show.
And Arsenio Hall
had a very similar line of questioning.
But how did you keep people from knowing,
if you were a stripper,
that you had a penis?
Well, I sort of, tucked it away, and...
stuck it up my... [chuckles]
...stuck it up my rosebud, actually.
[laughs]
W-Was it a real small penis?
'Cause I'd have a hard time
tucking mine away, you know?
[all laugh]
Whoo!
Uh... [laughs]
That was...
Oh, my God.
That was really...
That's really hard to watch now.
Can you have an orgasm?
Well, I think, like most women say,
you know, it depends on the guy, really.
-[laughs]
-[Arsenio] Oh, okay, yeah. Yeah.
[audience cheering]
[Ser] She was just so graceful.
For her and her humor and her wit.
I mean, I was like,
"I wish I could be like her."
Hey, I'd like to know
if you just pose for these magazines
and make these comments
just to try to prove to yourself
that you're a woman.
I don't have to prove to anyone or myself
that I'm a woman. I am a woman.
-[woman] Good girl!
-[audience applauds]
[Jen] In retrospect,
it's disheartening to see
the way that trans people were exploited
for those kinds of stories.
I have to admit,
it was also really cool just to see
actual trans people on television
The only thing about dating straight men
and living this way
is that they are more afraid
of what their friends will say
and perceive.
[Zackary] And so many of those people
are monuments in our community.
There's gender identity,
which is "What am I?
Am I a man or a woman?"
Then there's sexual orientation,
which is "Who do I love? Men or women?"
They're two different things.
[laughs]
It was a hustle for them.
It was an opportunity to get paid and...
to tell their story.
And it did reach us.
It's been estimated that there's probably
one in 40,000 births
or something like that are people
that fall into... to the category
that... that you would call "transsexual."
Uh, there are many, many others
who... who are sort of marginal, and--
[woman] Would you like to be talked about
like that? I wouldn't.
[Joan] No, but I think it's important
for somebody sitting at home
to hear there are other people,
there are a lot of other people,
that it's just fine and dandy.
Not all of us live
in New York or San Francisco.
But listening to someone
as articulate as Leslie or David,
you know, like, that, I think, is gonna
give them the hope and the strength.
For all our lives, we've always heard...
seen ourselves refracted
through other people's prisms.
-[Joan] Right.
-We've always heard people analyze us,
describe what our feelings are,
what our thoughts are.
How about talking about
why Jesse Helms needs some therapy?
[woman] Yes!
-Or...
-[audience applauds]
[Leslie] Or...
What...
What on earth is going through the minds
of those Klansmen, you know?
[Joan] Yes, yes.
And so, if... if we're going to talk
about our situations,
'cause if you don't name an oppression,
you can't fight it,
you know, basically,
you can't organize around it,
is that we want our own voices
to be heard,
and that's what
the civil rights movement did,
that's what the women's movement did--
And in a little way, that's what
The Joan Rivers Show has done today.
-[audience cheering]
-[Laverne] Seeing trans people loved,
uplifted, and well regarded
in film and television
can endear you to step in
when you see a trans person
being harassed on the street,
and to make sure
the trans people in your life
are supported in ways
that affirm their humanity.
You're a man?
Oh, hey.
-It's okay.
-No, it's not okay.
I swear I didn't mean
for you to find out like this.
[Laverne] But when all you see reinforced
is v*olence,
we're put further in harm's way.
-Talk to me!
-Please don't touch me!
[glass shatters]
[Jen] When you start watching trans clips
back-to-back,
you see how often
all the people around the trans character
feel betrayed or lied to.
But frankly, I-I kind of hate
the idea of disclosure... [laughs]
...in the sense that it presupposes
that there is something to disclose.
You told me about your parents,
your sister, your hobbies.
We sat for three hours on a porch
talking about everything.
You left out the fact
that you used to be a man.
I'm sorry.
[Jen] It reinforces their assumption
that there is a secret that is hidden
and that I have a responsibility
to tell others,
and that presupposes that the other person
might have some kind of issue or problem
with what's to be disclosed.
[door opens]
[footsteps depart]
And that their feelings
matter more than mine.
[softly] Damn it.
[Laverne] Or the trans person is invented
to facilitate the growth
of the straight white man.
In the real-life Dallas Buyers Club story,
there was actually no Rayon character.
I'm Rayon.
Congratulations.
f*ck off and go back to your bed.
[Bianca] In Dallas Buyers Club,
the heterosexual character
gets his act together.
You f*ckin' high?
None of your business.
And he becomes a hero.
I mean, god damn, people are dying,
and y'all are all up there afraid
that we're gonna find an alternative
without you.
Rayon's character...
[sniffing]
...has a drug relapse,
gets sick,
and dies.
Showing up with all the piss and vinegar
and sassiness
to wake up this guy
and shake up the assumptions.
"Okay, she's done that. He's on his way.
Oh. k*ll her."
And the Oscar goes to...
-Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club.
-[audience applauds]
[Jen] I do remember watching Jared Leto,
you know, in his white tuxedo
and a full beard
and it certainly was very clear to me
in that moment
that the world was seeing him as a man
despite Rayon having been portrayed
quite beautifully and sensitively
in the movie.
And I realized, like,
that's part of this larger narrative.
Lili.
[Jen] The public thinks of trans women
as men with really good hair and makeup
in costume.
And that's reinforced
every time we see a man
who's played a trans woman off-screen.
Can I come in?
I'm... I... I got no job.
I don't have friends. I can't live.
I-I have to live with people.
[Jen] To my mind, Dog Day Afternoon
is the par exemplar... [laughs]
...of this issue around trans casting,
particularly of men.
In real life, that woman, Elizabeth Eden,
was a remarkably beautiful trans woman.
And, at that time,
when they were first doing the movie,
they did go out to a trans actress,
Elizabeth Coffey Williams,
and they told her that she looked too much
like a real woman to play the part.
So, instead, they cast Chris Sarandon,
and it was his very first movie role,
and he was nominated for an Oscar for it.
[presenter] Chris Sarandon...
-in Dog Day Afternoon.
-[audience applauds]
This has been going on for 40 years.
[presenter 2] John Lithgow
in The World According to Garp.
[audience applauds]
[presenter 3] Cillian Murphy,
Breakfast on Pluto.
[audience cheering]
[presenter 4] Eddie Redmayne,
The Danish Girl.
[Jen] Having cis men play trans women,
in my mind, is a direct link
to the v*olence against trans women.
And in my mind, part of the reason
that men end up k*lling trans women
out of fear that other men
will think that they're gay
for having been with trans women,
is that the friends,
the men whose judgment they fear of,
only know trans women from media
and the people who are playing trans women
are the men that they know.
This doesn't happen
when a trans woman plays a trans woman.
[chuckling] Laverne Cox is
just as beautiful and glamorous off-screen
as she is on-screen.
As is Jazzmun, as is Trace Lysette,
and Alexandra Billings
and Angelica Ross and so on.
When you see these women off-screen
still as women,
it completely deflates this idea
that they're somehow men in disguise.
[rock music playing]
[both exclaim]
Whereas if I'm playing
a trans character...
Looking at who we really are
or what we really want can be terrifying.
...I don't have to play
the transness of it.
[giggling]
When someone like Eddie Redmayne,
who admittedly might give
a really great performance
as a trans woman...
Am I pretty enough?
Of course you are.
[Jen] What's remarkable
about his performance is the transness,
is the way that he's been able to manifest
those feminine parts of himself
into a convincing trans performance,
but it reduces that person,
in this case, who was a real person,
to a performance of transness,
to a performance of femininity,
rather than as a whole person,
of whom transness is one aspect of.
In this year of women in film,
I am here to present an award
for a category
in which women have traditionally
found it difficult to gain a toehold:
Best Supporting Actor.
[audience laughs]
I think it can be safely said, however,
that this year was a breakthrough year
in this category.
[audience applauds]
["The Crying Game" playing]
♪ I know what there is to know ♪
♪ About the crying game ♪
When The Crying Game came out,
everybody was like,
"Don't tell the secret of The Crying Game.
The secret is, like, crazy.
It's crazy! Oh, my God."
[gasps]
[Dil] You did know, didn't you?
Oh, my God.
Jesus, I feel sick.
Don't go, Jimmy.
[grunts]
[door closes]
-I'm sorry. I thought you knew.
-[Jimmy retching and coughing]
[retching and coughing continues]
The puking. Um...
I mean, it just...
You know, I feel emotional when I...
when I even talk about...
uh... the... the repulsion.
Um, because that's how I felt
about myself for so long.
Like, will people be repelled?
Will people be... you know...
The... the word "disgust."
You know, there's so much shame
that people have to fight through...
and come out the other side of.
And then it emerges in weird,
insidious ways somewhere down the road,
and you're like, "What? That's up again?"
[retches and coughs]
I'm bleeding.
You know, I didn't...
It took me many years to understand
the ways in which it was flawed,
because I think at the time,
when I was, like, ten years old,
just seeing
that beautiful woman with a penis
changed, like, my whole perception
of what was possible.
I don't know what the director's
intentions were in this film.
I suspect he did wanna create
an empathetic portrayal of a trans woman.
But in the same way that Psycho created
this ripple effect of cross-dressing,
psychopathic serial K*llers...
[gasps]
[screams]
...The Crying Game created a ripple effect
of men reacting with vomiting
when they see a transgender woman.
[retching loudly]
[man retches] Oh, God.
[Nick] Hollywood is teaching people
that the way you react
when you see a transgender person's body
is to vomit.
[inhales]
Your g*n is digging into my hip.
As a kid, my favorite movie
was Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.
[Ace] ♪ Ass-holeyo mio ♪
♪ O sodo-mia ♪
And then I was watching it in college,
as I was transitioning.
And I was really down...
[whistles]
...and I think I wanted something
that I knew was gonna bring me up
and make me happy.
And then we get to the end...
Oh, my God!
Einhorn is a man!
[groans]
[retching]
[coughing]
[Zeke] There is this long scene of him...
barfing, inducing barfing,
brushing his teeth,
scraping out his tongue,
gargling with mouthwash,
trying to, like, cleanse himself
of the fact that he has made
romantic contact with a trans person.
Or with a man. I mean, you can see it
through a h*m* lens.
It's both h*m* and transphobic.
And then, as he's gonna, like,
have his Scooby-Doo moment...
[panting]
[laughs]
...he does so by, like,
pulling down her skirt,
turning her around,
and exposing the fact
that, like, her genitals are tucked.
[spitting]
[retching]
-[spits]
-[retching]
That, like,
you are a trans person who existed
made people physically ill
was the way in which
my favorite movie as a child ended.
[Jen] It's an interesting question,
a thought experiment,
to go back and think...
-[groans]
-...what I would feel today,
as an out trans person,
if I had never seen any representation
of myself in the media.
On the one hand,
I might not have ever internalized
that sense of-- of being monstrous,
of having fears around disclosure,
of seeing myself as something abhorrent
and as-- as a punchline
and-- and as a joke.
I might be able to go on a date with a man
without having the image of men vomiting.
On the flip side,
would I even know I'm trans
if I had never seen any kind of depiction
of gender variance on-screen.
One of the things that I struggled with
as a trans person was,
"Who will ever love me?
Who will love this?"
Rest, Neo.
The answers are coming.
-[monitor beeping]
-[Lilly] Being out and trans
forces people to look back on my work
and apply a trans narrative to it,
because I wasn't making The Matrix films
as specifically trans narratives.
One of the most striking things to me
is the burbling undercurrent of rage
that I felt, in the end,
not being able to be who I was.
Trying to find myself in media and film
was, uh, extremely difficult.
There was something about Bugs Bunny
that activated, in my trans imagination,
this idea of transformation.
♪ I'm hunting wabbits ♪
[Susan] You know, when I was growing up
in the '60s,
I watched a lot of television,
watched a lot of movies,
and the only...
only positive representation I saw
of anything transfeminine
was Bugs Bunny.
[orchestral music playing]
[Susan] When Bugs Bunny was doing "girl,"
Bugs Bunny was desirable and was powerful.
♪ Oh, Brünnhilde ♪
♪ You're so wovwey ♪
♪ Yes, I know it ♪
♪ I can't help it ♪
Bugs Bunny is a character
that is born of imagination
and exists in a space
in between me and its creator,
and therefore is a little bit more
accessible to me and my young mind.
I would always look back on that episode
with a certain glee
about the transformative aspects of it.
And that Bugs looked,
you know, really cute.
I liked that part.
♪ Won't you return my love? ♪
♪ For my love is yours ♪
[Lilly] The original
trans panic defense...
I'll k*ll the wabbit!
...in cartoon form.
[Elmer] Awise, storms!
[Lilly] The court of Looney Tunes.
-Well, what did you expect in an opera?
-[Elmer sobs]
A happy ending?
-[woman speaking French]
-[birds singing]
[Zackary] Ma Vie En Rose
is where I actually felt
that my own story was on the screen,
because I was that little boy
who wanted to be a girl.
And nobody understood,
and nobody knew what to do with me.
[hair clippers whirring]
I grew up in Syracuse, New York,
which is a really isolated place,
culturally.
There was the library,
and there was a video store,
and those were, like, my conduits
to a larger world.
-[song playing on radio]
-Could you turn that racket down?
I'm tryin' to iron in here.
[Zackary] I was, like, six years old,
and I remember renting
the videotape of Hairspray.
Okay, young ladies,
I've heard just about enough
of this screeching music.
And having the sense that,
Edna Turnblad...
There was something different about her.
-[rock and roll playing]
-[rhythmic clapping]
[Zackary] Divine, in Hairspray,
is playing a cis character.
[laughs]
So I think that those kinds
of, like, slippages
are really meaningful for a young person.
I mean, when you look at Holly Woodlawn,
and Candy Darling, and Jackie Curtis
in Paul Morrissey films,
they were never playing trans characters.
The actor's gender never comes into it.
I'm young.
I wanna live.
As a young person,
when I started to identify as q*eer,
I was so captivated by elder q*eer people.
And Flawless Sabrina
was, like, one of the first people I met
when I was 18 years old
and had just moved to New York City,
and she was this elderly queen,
and...
I was fascinated by her
and by the history
that she unlocked for me.
[Sabrina] I go up to this queen,
and I say, "What's your name?"
The queen says, "Monique."
And you say,
"That-- That's marvelous, darling,
but what was your name before?"
And the queen will look at you
straight in the eye and say,
"There was no before."
[Zackary] The film The Queen
was, like, the pinnacle of the drag balls
that she started doing in 1959.
But at that point,
it was called female impersonation.
It was illegal.
Um, she was arrested a whole lot.
[Laverne] In the 1960s and '70s,
people could go
to an art-house movie theater
and see real-life trans people,
but it wasn't until 1990
that the mainstream took notice of a film
that centered trans women of color.
And that film is Paris is Burning.
[Junior LaBeija] You see it
on channel seven
between All My Children and Jeopardy,
Another World, Dallas, and the whole bit.
An evening bag is a must.
You have to carry something.
No lady is sure at night.
[MJ] I had seen Paris Is Burning
when I was, like, 11,
but I didn't really understand...
what I was watching.
I just saw beautiful people on the screen.
-["Got to Be Real" playing]
-♪ What you find-ah ♪
-♪ I think I love you, baby ♪
-♪ What you feel now ♪
[MJ] I didn't hear the words.
I just saw the happiness and joy.
When it fully came to me
for actual understanding,
I was like, "Oh, my God, like...
These are my sisters up here,
but the struggle is real."
You know, I ran away from my house
when I was 14,
and I've learned all sorts of things,
good and bad,
and how to survive in gay world.
You know, it's kinda hard.
It's just, there's so many iconic moments
that allowed me to see myself
as a working-class trans woman
in New York City.
And I'm as free as the wind
that's blowing out on this beach. [laughs]
[Trace] And I remember seeing
Paris Is Burning
and wanting that kind of family bond.
[both] ♪ I am my own special creation ♪
[sighs]
Oh, my goodness.
I'm getting warm and fuzzy all over again.
Uh...
I discovered ballroom in 1995. I'm 14.
Going to school.
School.
[Marquise] Ballroom, this was a space
that was so affirming,
so validating, so loving.
[Junior LaBeija] School.
[audience cheers and applauds]
I've heard people say things like,
"Well, there were no trans men
in ballroom in the '80s or the '90s."
Well, no, yeah, there were. [laughs]
The problem is that there wasn't language
for transmasculine communities at all.
Can I have a few of you over here?
[Jazzmun] I loved, in Paris Is Burning,
I love Octavia St. Laurent.
I wanna be somebody.
I mean, I am somebody.
I just wanna be a rich somebody. [laughs]
[Jazzmun] I could see myself in her,
you know.
I understand, like, why it's important
for, uh, specifically trans women of color
to seek out validation
in a heteronormative, white, cis world.
I was in the House of LaBeija.
[Junior LaBeija] Pepper LaBeija.
♪ Pepper LaBeija ♪
Give her some walking music.
[Sandra] I was a part of that family,
but, at the time,
I didn't think I could join in fully.
Yeah, I was too busy trying to be "real."
[Junior LaBeija] Get into both of them
and see which one is realer.
I had to separate. I had to make a choice.
Yeah.
There was a buzz
around the film being made,
but the kids didn't get any recognition.
I felt that she took advantage
of all of us.
All of us, you know.
But I didn't benefit nothing out of it.
[interviewer]
How do you explain how other people
have been seeing Paris Is Burning
as something good?
Because they're looking outside in.
Paris Is Burning is, like, their...
their motto or something.
[Laverne] What does it mean to go
into cultures that you don't exist in
and tell those stories?
And how do we have a critical relationship
so that we learn?
-["Vogue" playing]
-Strike a pose.
[Marquise] I mean, you see a film
like Paris Is Burning,
and then, suddenly,
here's Madonna's "Vogue,"
and then people think
Madonna created vogue.
♪ Come on, vogue ♪
♪ Let your body move to the music ♪
-♪ Move to the music ♪
-♪ Hey, hey, hey ♪
♪ Come on, vogue ♪
♪ Vogue ♪
You see pop culture appropriate ballroom
over and over and over,
and I think it's important to remember
who's from that world...
and do right by it.
[cheering and whistling]
I can be critical of Paris Is Burning,
but I'm so happy
Paris Is Burning also exists.
And I love the film.
If you sh**t a arrow
and it goes real high,
hooray for you.
[Sandra] What I had learned
from the world of the balls,
you know, was being grand,
and I pushed it all out.
I'm living in my new pronoun that I've...
"Stealth."
-Come here.
-[laughs]
-Come here.
-[laughs]
[laughing]
[Sandra] Do you know what it's like
to go on a set
and...
be afraid?
[chuckles]
Your head is trying desperately
to stay in the scene.
[doorbell rings]
You wake up afraid.
You go to sleep afraid.
You're trying to figure out
if somebody's gonna drop the b*mb
that day, the next day.
When is it gonna happen?
So, you're just afraid all the time.
You got so much on the outside.
We'll just see
how much you got on the inside.
But anyway, I did what I had to do.
It was called survival.
It was called survival.
I'm all right.
I will survive.
[Sandra] I would never think for a moment
that I was the only one.
And you wanna go, and you wanna say,
"Girl, ain't we somethin'?"
But, nah, you just left it alone.
I wish I could've.
Man, wouldn't that have been good.
[Laverne] It is so incredibly empowering
for me to know
that there were people
who transitioned decades before me
and had full careers.
Ajita Wilson transitioned in the mid '70s.
Wouldn't you be jealous
if I went with another man?
[man] That's part of the job.
When the job includes a diamond,
it makes things much nicer.
[Laverne] And also Tracey Africa
was this incredible model in the 1970s
who was on a Clairol hair color box
and modeled for Essence magazine.
It's important for me to know
that these Black trans women
were doing it, you know, back in the day,
and how many more Ajita Wilsons
and Tracey Africas
were out there doing their thing
that we don't know about
because living stealth
was the way to survive.
It wasn't until 2007
that we saw an openly trans woman
being celebrated for doing it out loud.
Candis Cayne makes history
on Dirty Sexy Money...
[Candis] My first episode
of Dirty Sexy Money,
I had a big gathering
with all of my friends,
and I was so excited
I was gonna be on ABC,
and there was, like, ten of us,
and we were all, like, sitting around
having a glass of wine.
-[man] Thank you.
-[Candis] And I come on,
everybody's like, "Yay!" [clapping]
And then my first line...
[sighs, in deep voice] I missed you.
They lowered it two octaves.
[Carmelita] You haven't called.
[quietly]
It's not good for you to be here.
And everybody, the loud party,
was like, "Ah--"
It was the most horrifying thing ever.
I'll come when the party's over, okay?
Oh, yes, you will.
[Candis] They did it for one line
to get the idea
that Carmelita was a trans woman.
Thank God I had chemistry
with Billy Baldwin.
And he's like,
"This story line's gonna steal the show."
[laughs]
My whole point to this
is to not only tell trans children
that they're okay, but their parents.
That this is just something
that some human beings are.
That moment made me believe
it was possible for me, too,
to be openly trans
and to...
to act,
and, um...
[exhales]
...it was everything.
A few years later,
Chaz Bono was nominated
for producing Becoming Chaz in 2011.
[Chaz] I'm doing this,
not because I want to see myself on film,
it's because I wanna try to help people.
You know, I wanna try to put a face
on an issue that people don't understand.
I didn't transition until 2009.
So, uh, I went through,
you know, a very long period,
a very dark period,
of knowing that I was trans
but not feeling like
I could do anything about it.
I mean,
I thought about faking my own death
-[woman] Oh, Chaz.
-Stop!
Chaz! Why, honey?
So I could just do this,
and nobody would know.
The good thing was that I got to a point
of such clarity about it.
[band playing "Dancing in the Street"]
♪ Calling out around the world ♪
♪ Are you ready for a brand-new b*at? ♪
[Chaz] I felt like I was dancing
for the trans community.
Honestly. I mean, that was my motivation
at that point to stay on,
because I knew
that on Dancing with the Stars,
I would hit an audience
that was gonna be larger
than had ever been in contact
with a transgender person
at that point before.
So, that kept me really going,
and it was hard
because I had to do something
that I wasn't good at doing. [laughs]
♪ They'll be dancing ♪
♪ Dancing in the street ♪
[audience cheering]
[Tiq] So, you know, Chaz coming out
really wasn't that long ago,
and I contribute that cultural shift
to us,
to the work that all of us here are doing.
And I'm just really proud of us.
We've come so far.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[Laverne clears throat]
[Laverne] I was at a GLAAD event,
and my manager said,
"There's a show about a women's prison
on Netflix. It's a web series."
Then, "There's a part for you."
At the time, this was 2012,
streaming series weren't a thing.
So I was like, "I have a web...
I'm doing a web series on Netflix,"
and, like, I didn't think
anybody was gonna see it.
♪ The animals ♪
♪ The animals ♪
♪ Trapped, trapped, trapped
Till the cage is full ♪
[Rain] I heard that there was
a new show on Netflix,
and I knew that it was
from the creators of Weeds,
and I was like,
"This is gonna be really good."
And so, when I first watched it,
there was Laverne.
Excuse me.
-Such pretty hair.
-Thank you.
[Sophia] When those roots start to show,
come and see me.
I'll take good care of you.
To see that character
over the, now, years...
The complexities, the backstory,
the power that she's, kind of, given.
In the Black community, the hairdresser,
it's the pinnacle, right?
And the fact that there's
a Black trans woman running this?
That was amazing to me.
You really wanna be calling me a lady-man
when I got a fistful of your hair
in my hand?
[Jazzmun] At the same time, you know,
she's still in jail,
and she's still a problem in society.
You know, she's still a menace to society.
It's not like she's changing
people's lives, you know,
by doing their-- these--
these prisoners' hair.
So, come on, but...
she's such a smart woman.
I'm a big fan,
and I like how she took it
to another level.
[audience cheering]
[Trace] For me, it was like seeing
a trans woman winning
while being trans.
And the only other reference point
I had for that
was maybe Candis Cayne
on Dirty Sexy Money.
Maybe the occasional guest spot
by Alexandra Billings.
If people were really one in Christ,
how could my boyfriend have left me
after the operation?
[Trace] Or Jazzmun.
I'll serve, you explain,
and do not go easy on that person.
[Trace] Or Lady Chablis.
Okay, baby. Yes, I am a bitch,
and proud of it, honey.
But not at this magnitude.
She is an Emmy-nominated actress,
a human rights activist,
an all-around icon--
Laverne...
-Cox!
-Cox!
Oh, my goodness.
-[audience cheering]
-Oh!
[Laverne] What I have been so blessed by
is all the folks who...
have empathy
for the character that I play,
and then find themselves having empathy
for the actress who plays her. And...
I would argue that that doesn't...
always happen when cis people play us.
First I saw Laverne Cox,
just took my head
and just spun it right on around.
And then I saw another film.
I said, "What's... What's happening?
Did... Did we overcome and nobody told me?
What's happening?"
I think right now it's very urgent
to connect through stories,
and-- and new stories.
[Sandra] And then I saw some more,
and I'm going,
"What is going on?
How are the children doing this?"
[Zackary] It was August, 2013,
that we sh*t the pilot for Transparent.
And I think it was
a really untraditional set, you know,
and process.
Just the amount of trans people
that were employed
and being brought into the fold
of Hollywood
and decision-maker positions.
Like, they weren't just consultants,
they were producers.
-Why the f*ck did you bring me here?
-[Josh] What?
I brought you here because it seemed fun.
-This is fun.
-[Shea] Fun?
-Yeah, you seem fun.
-[Shea] Fun?
-Like a sex worker "good time" fun, Josh?
-[Josh] No.
Okay, well, now that you mention it,
I did pay for all this.
f*ck you, Josh.
I see right through you,
and I'm not your f*cking adventure!
I'm a person.
I'm not your f*cking adventure!
-[audience applauds]
-And the Emmy goes to...
Let's say Jeffrey Tambor.
[interviewer] Trace, you came forward
as a member of the Me Too movement.
I'm talking about being sexually harassed
by Jeffrey Tambor
on the set of Transparent.
I spoke the truth,
and I was blessed to have you with me,
and I appreciate you so much
for going through that with me.
[interviewer] Are you surprised
he's continuing to work?
No, uh, because we're trans.
And so I'm used to people
not wanting to believe us.
If you're going to...
choose to insert yourself
in the telling
of a particular community's story,
or you want to help a particular community
tell their story,
you need to realize
the privileges that you have,
and you need to realize
that life for them is different.
Please welcome Carmen Carrera.
[audience cheering and applauding]
-[Carmen] Hi!
-Hi!
[Laverne] I was backstage.
Carmen was on, being interviewed by Katie,
and Katie asked Carmen...
Your... your private parts
-are different now, aren't they?
-[Carmen] Shh.
I don't want to talk about it
because it's-- it's still...
it's really personal.
And, um... I don't know.
I just-- I'd rather talk
about my modeling stuff,
I'd rather talk about being in W,
and being, you know,
maybe in Italian Vogue,
and doing fun stuff and...
and showing people
that after their transition,
there's still life to live.
[Laverne] And I was backstage,
and I was like...
[gasps] "Okay. Here we go."
[Katie] You know, I think all of us
want to be educated,
and Carmen was sort of...
uh, recoiled a little bit
when I asked her about her transition,
and I'm wondering if you have the same
feelings about that that Carmen does?
I do. I was very proud of you
for saying that.
The preoccupation with transition
and with surgery objectifies trans people,
and then we don't get to really deal
with the real lived experiences.
The reality of-- of trans people's lives
is that so often
we're targets of v*olence.
We experience discrimination
disproportionately
to the rest of the community.
And when we focus on transition,
we don't actually
get to talk about those things.
[Laverne] Because people
might get dragged on Twitter,
people will avoid a subject altogether
or become reactionary or...
or bitter or angry,
and Katie really did the opposite.
I want to use this as a teachable moment,
not only for myself,
but how do we explain, sort of,
what is the appropriate conversation
and how do we make people feel
if we don't have an example
of what you shouldn't do?
[Angelica] You see a fierceness coming
from the girls that are coming up now.
That's because we understand
we ain't got nothing to lose.
I already done lost that job,
I done lost that job.
So I'm only gonna gain by being authentic
and by telling the truth.
-...who arrived, baby.
-Hello.
How are you doing?
-You made it.
-Yes, I did. Hi. How are you?
[Zeke] You can say what you want
about Caitlyn Jenner's politics,
you can say what you want
about the Kardashians ruining America.
I Am Cait's not really about Caitlyn.
[plays notes]
[Caitlyn] Oh, no.
[Zeke] It is about this remarkable,
brilliant group of trans women
who are having conversations
with one another.
Which Republican candidate
do you think will be most supportive
of transgender people?
[Caitlyn] Um... all of 'em.
[laughs]
[Caitlyn] Yeah. They don't...
Don't think the Republicans...
"Oh, I hate trans people,"
or "I hate gays."
Don't think of that.
I find it really problematic that they say
trans, you know, activist or advocate
Caitlyn Jenner saying this.
No, it's Caitlyn Jenner,
who's a very specific person,
with a specific set of experiences
that are very monied, very white,
very privileged.
I stridently disagree
with all of her views.
The fact is
is that her show did a lot of good.
[Candis] I'm as well adjusted as I am
because my parents,
from the very beginning,
were completely supportive,
so I applaud you guys for being here.
[Jen] And there was a scene
where there were parents
talking about their kids.
If you have a transgender kid,
you are living with a unicorn,
an amazing human being.
To be next to someone so brave, so cool,
so close to themselves.
The reality is Avery has been on point
from age two, apparently.
Know what I mean?
-So, the reality is it's such an honor.
-[woman] It's so true what he's saying.
[Jen] I was watching this father,
and it just... it hurt because...
I had to be okay with my mom saying,
"I will never call you Jen
because Jen m*rder*d my son."
I had to-- I had to be okay with that
in order to survive myself, you know?
In order to deal with not being able
to see my grandma before she d*ed
because I could only come home
if I dressed as a boy.
You know.
I had to deal with the fact
that one of my best friends,
who, like, I stood up at his wedding,
won't let me meet his children.
I have to deal with those things.
Like, I have to live with those things.
And I have to make that okay.
I have to understand their position
and be okay with it.
And when I saw that father
go so much further
than I thought was even possible,
it hurt, I couldn't bear it,
because then, all of a sudden,
all those people
who couldn't accept me,
when I knew it was possible
to go beyond acceptance...
Why couldn't my mom have been like him?
That's the question I never asked
until that moment.
Why couldn't my mom have been like him?
Why couldn't my friends have been like him
and seen the value in my experience?
But the person who's most responsible
for failing to have that kind of vision
is me.
I have never seen myself
the way that father saw his own child.
I'd never seen myself that way.
I'd never looked at myself
with the kind of...
love and respect and awe
that that father had for his own child.
No one's looked at me that way.
How could I look at me that way?
I had to see it.
And now that I have, I want that.
[inhales deeply, exhales]
[audience cheering]
[Yance] Marian Wright Edelman said,
"Children cannot be what they cannot see."
And it's not just about children.
It's about all of us.
We cannot be a better society
until we see that better society.
I cannot be in the world
until I see that I am in the world.
For a long time,
I was afraid to be who I am
because I was taught by my parents
that there's something wrong
with someone like me.
Nomi, as a character,
was the first, uh, time
that we had explicitly put
a trans person in our writing.
She was a character
that I had aspirations to being.
There's something that is funny
about the magic trick of...
creating something out of thin air,
and then using that thing as, like,
this handhold to pull yourself forward.
And that's what Nomi was for me, yeah.
[orchestra playing]
I'm so proud of Nomi Marks.
Her character
was not defined by her transness.
You love her a lot.
[Jamie] Her relationship with Amanita
transcended everything
that I had ever known
a relationship could be.
There's no way that I couldn't just...
This. Just every time
that I think about...
"Nomanita." [laughs]
Focus, children.
It is time we remind the world who we are.
Royalty.
But we should all walk it together.
When Pose happened,
I never thought in a million years that...
our stories would be...
placed on a platform
that had mainstream on top of it.
We have a challenge...
for the legendary children
of the House of Abundance.
[cheering]
[Laverne] Pose is different...
because...
they're stories that center...
Black trans women
on a mainstream TV network.
This must give you some satisfaction.
You won.
None of us win
when one of us gets b*at down,
even someone who had
the beatdown coming to them.
[MJ] Being directed and written for
by trans individuals on the show
is amazing,
because it felt like we were all included
and people took our minds seriously.
And also being around people
who are like you.
-I should join your house.
-I'm just sayin'.
[laughing]
[Tiq] There's trans folks everywhere.
You know, trans folks who are consulting,
trans folks who are writing and producing
and directing.
That really lent to the stories
being really complex
and being really endearing
and really inspired.
Even, like, the sex scenes... honey!
["Let's Wait Awhile" playing on radio]
[Elliot] The most casual sex
I have ever seen
a trans person have on television.
Could have gone so horribly wrong,
and I'm so glad
it went so, so right. [laughs]
[audience cheers]
[Marquise] It's created
so many opportunities for community,
and so, there has to be a moment in time
where, like, transmasculinity...
It has to be included.
It's a part of ballroom. We are a part
of that history and the culture.
♪ Living here in this brand-new world ♪
♪ Might be a fantasy ♪
[Janet] When you look to the past,
you can learn a lot about your present.
For me, I saw that HIV/AIDS, poverty,
harassment, and v*olence
are things that they were dealing with
in '87 as well as today.
And so, knowing that 26 trans people
were m*rder*d
in the United States last year,
almost all of them women of color,
I thought it was important
that we memorialize
the people who...
who we've learned so much from,
the people who've contributed so much
to our movement.
[Angelica] Movies,
these things make us feel sometimes.
And movies, sometimes we walk
into a theater, and we wanna be changed.
But we need this change to happen
in real life, in real time.
[Laverne] When I think about Pose
and that one of the creators of the show
is Ryan Murphy,
and I think about shows like Nip/Tuck,
I get excited
because I think that people can evolve.
You know, I think about Janet Mock's
interview with Oprah.
I think it's so interesting
that it took you the time that it took you
to become comfortable
with telling your story.
That was very different
than Oprah's interview with Lea T.
Lea T was born a boy.
So, folks can evolve,
and I think that a moment shifts
and awareness shifts.
[Sandra laughs] My, uh...
My outing was in the New York Times.
Whew.
Mmm.
Look at me now. [laughs]
It was... It was so frightening.
Then I started having meetings
with ABC and NBC,
and, yes, Fox.
Who knew?
Who knew?
I, for the first time...
Here's the emotional part.
...got to say loudly and clearly,
at an audition,
that I'm a trans woman.
[crowd cheers and applauds]
My mother, she's so happy,
'cause she now can breathe.
She said, "Nobody's gonna do anything
to you anymore. It's all...
It's all good."
Well, not quite, Mom. It's, you know.
Work still has to be done.
[Laverne] We always have to be
really skeptical
when a few people are elevated
and the majority of people
are still struggling.
[Chase] The trans person
on the red carpet,
or the trans character
on television and film,
those sort of representations of transness
may incite rage in a viewer.
And that viewer doesn't have access
to the character.
They have access
to the person on the street.
I think that makes it
especially important for us
to be pushing
for actual material redistribution.
Otherwise, all we're doing
is elevating some people
into the sphere of the powerful
and not in any way working
to disrupt the systems
that exclude most trans people
from material survival.
There is still a lot of work to do,
and we can't think that just because
you see trans representation
that the revolution is over.
You know. It's not.
Things can spin on a dime.
[snaps fingers]
Having positive representation
can only succeed in changing
the conditions of life for trans people
when it is part of a much broader movement
for social change.
Changing representation is not the goal.
It's just the means to an end.
[Laverne] I wonder if people
who watch and love these shows,
I wonder if they will reach out
to trans people in need
and work to defeat policies
that scapegoat us,
policies that discriminate against us,
policies that dehumanize us.
Because until that happens,
all that energy from the silver screen
won't be enough
to better the lives of trans people
off the screen.
[reflective instrumental music playing]
[reflective instrumental music
continues playing]
Disclosure (2020)
Moderator: Maskath3