Crossing the sex barrier
TEENAGER Jamie carried a letter to his parents in his pocket for a week – terrified about giving it to them. In the end, he dropped it on his dad’s lap and legged it upstairs to his bedroom.
Coming out about transgender issues is scary, and this excellent film meets several trans men and women who are going through the challenging process.
“My head has never felt connected to my body,” says Jamie who, when he was 14, was depressed and took to self-harming. Now 19, he is looking forward to having his hormone injections. Fortunately his mum and dad were entirely supportive, although they admit they were overwhelmed and grieved for the loss of their daughter. And Jamie’s best mate Fletch is also a trans man so they can go through the experience together.
Others have not been so lucky. When Samantha was a boy she remembers her mum being furious to find Sam’s sister’s clothes stuffed in her wardrobe. Now a woman, she talks about previous suicide attempts, and only recently feels more comfortable in her skin.
Elsewhere, Charlotte, 24, talks about the challenges of working in a mostly male environment (she’s an engineer for London Midland Trains) since becoming a woman.
With the lines of gender becoming more blurred than ever, this insightful film asks how a person really knows their own gender. And what happens psychologically, physically and biologically to a person who’s transitioning?
There is expert opinion of course, but mostly this is an intimate and eyeopening view into an unknown world – and takes great strides to knock down prejudices.