Perhaps capped by Laverne Cox‘s incredible Time cover, it’s been a pretty monumental week for the transgender community and a perfect time to introduce another way to educate, enlighten, and inform people.
What’s The T? is a new documentary that “explores the challenges, successes and lives of five transgender women” and the trailer is definitely intense, thought-provoking and provocative.
Looks like these ladies got the jump on VH1’s upcoming TransAmerica reality series starring Carmen Carrera, but there’s certainly room for multiple stories to be told.
Check out the trailer below and catch the full movie on Hulu now.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
KDub
Is Queerty a trans site now?
ingyaom
@KDub: Exactly – What is up with the wall-to-wall trans stuff on QUEERTY? This is supposed to be a g@y-interest website. If there are trans people who are also g@y, I welcome them… otherwise, I think they should be catered to on another site.
Bee Gaga
@ingyaom: Queerty is an LGBTQ site. That specifies on gay men, because the people who run it are gay men. If you don’t like the trans content then I suggest you go to a strictly gay male site.
IzzyLuna
I’m so so proud of this film. The women in it really delved deep into their lives and the director really knew what to capture for the documentary. I was the editor.
KDub
@ingyaom: I agree. It’s particularly odd since gay men and trans really have nothing in common. From what I know, a lot of transwomen consider themselves hetero. I always felt like lumping them in with the LGB was kinda like saying, “uhh no, bitch. you’re still a man!” Lol
ingyaom
@KDub: I’ll take that as one more vote for dropping the T and keeping the L, G, and B. I’m not sure how they came to lumped together with gays in the first place… maybe because the stereotype of a gay man being feminine seemed related to men who wanted to become women (like Al Pacino in “Dog Day Afternoon”).
Manchester
What’s with all the trans crap on this site?
Mezaien
@Manchester: The problem is with all the fucked up HOMOS, who just full of shit.
jayj150
It’s interesting, so many of the stories posted recently are about straight people like Mock, Carrera, Cox, these ladies, etc. Their new motto should be: “Free of an agenda. Except that straight one.”.
gablem
OH NO! Trans* people are getting some representation among the gay representation!
Look eveyone, trans* people exist, and they deserve to have their voices heard. If you don’t want to read about them, don’t click on a link that says Incredible Personal Struggles Of Transgender Women Explored In “What’s The T?”.
I don’t know off the top of my head why gender identity and sexuality have been lumped together, but the simple fact of the matter is that they are, and the bigots associate them, too. Trans* people actually have it worse than gay people in the US right now, and part of the reason for that is because people have been prioritizing G and L over B and ignoring T. The trans* community has been fighting for gay rights for a long time, so maybe it’s time for the gay community to start fighting for trans* rights.
gablem
Additionally, straight trans* people are far from privileged. They have to fight just as hard, if not harder, for their rights as cis gay people. They fall under the queer umbrella, so yes, they have a place being represented on this website.
jayj150
@gablem: Can you give specific examples of this ‘long history’ of transsexuals supporting gay/lesbian rights?. Because there are numerous instances of the converse case, like gay/lesbians rejecting ENDA, in direct opposition to their own interests, because it didn’t include protections for trans people.
jayj150
@gablem: “Additionally, straight trans* people are far from privileged. They have to fight just as hard, if not harder, for their rights as cis gay people… so yes, they have a place being represented on this website.”. So basically, anyone who faces prejudices should be represented in our movement, regardless of orientation. Can we start including overweight people, illegal immigrants and the disabled regardless of whether they’re straight or not please?
gablem
@jayj150: If you read my original comment you would know that what matters is that those who oppose gay, bi and trans* rights oppose them as a unit. While sexuality and gender identity are two completely separate things, they are also closer than, say, sexuality and body positivity, and gay people, bisexual people, and trans* people need to present a united front, or while we’re fighting among ourselves, the bigots will be happily undoing what progress we’ve made. There’s a reason it’s called the LGBT movement, not the LGB movement.
And since you replied to my other comment (not being able to edit comments is a bit of a pain, isn’t it?), I was speaking in general terms. You’ll never find a homophobic trans* person, if only for the fact that every straight trans* person has questioned at one point if they were “really just gay” (bullshit phrasing, I know, but that’s what a lot of trans* people hear), but you will find transphobic and/or cissexist gay and bisexual people. I’m sure there is some sort of causal relationship between that and the fact that the LGBT movement, despite being ostensibly for the rights of at least Lesbian women, Gay men, Bisexual people and Transgender people, has prioritized gay men, then lesbians, followed more recently by bisexual people, and all but ignoring the needs of the trans* people who make up an undeniable part of the community as a whole.
The questions that remain, then, are 1) why are you so threatened by trans* discourse when a look at the home page of this site clearly shows that it’s not erasing gay discourse? and 2) why the hell did you click on a link with “transgender” in the title if you didn’t want to read about trans* people?
jayj150
@gablem: “You’ll never find a homophobic trans* person, if only for the fact that every straight trans* person has questioned at one point if they were “really just gay” (bullshit phrasing, I know, but that’s what a lot of trans* people hear), but you will find transphobic and/or cissexist gay and bisexual people.”. Are you serious?. Can’t you see how incredibly unfair and homophobic that statement is in itself?. There’s plenty of raging homophobia among the transgender movement, and its leader are very openly and vocally homophobic, routinely using slurs. Even the word ‘Cisgender’, is more often than not used by transpeople in a pejorative way(‘cis privilege’, ‘die cis scum’). And, let me ask you AGAIN. Name at least one significant instance of the alleged long history of support of transsexuals for gay rights.
sweetbrandigirl2004
@Manchester: WOW way to support the community ! Try getting with the program ! Remember the LGBT community you known the were all one family and we accept and support each other remember that ?
gablem
@jayj150: Explain to me how pointing out that there are transphobic and cissexist gay people is homophobic, especially given all the previous comments on this article. If you want to prove me wrong about there not being homophobic trans* people, find me an example of a homophobic trans* person. Just one name, that’s all you need to prove me wrong and support your claim of “raging homophobia among the transgender movement” (I did my research, even looking specifically for homophobic members of the transgender movement. Nada.)
As for your problem with the word ‘cisgender’, it’s not used pejoratively most of the time. It was created to refer to people whose gender identity matches their physical sex, to avoid harmful language patterns like referring to people who aren’t trans as ‘real’ men and women. ‘Cis privilege’ is not pejorative, any more than ‘white privilege’ or ‘straight privilege’. It’s a sociological term to denote the relative lack of opposition a group faces in living their lives. “Die cis scum” on the other hand is definitely an attack, but let me tell you about the people who say things like that. They never leave their computer screens. They spew hate-filled attacks to privileged groups on the internet in the name of ‘social justice’ because they’re too cowardly to stand up in real life. They are extreme, they are immature, and the best way to deal with them is to ignore them the way you ignore a whiny child. I’m curious to know, though, what the term ‘cisgender’ has to do with homophobia. Your thought processes are a bit hard to follow.
Now I’ll answer your question AGAIN. I was speaking in general terms. Trans* people are an undeniable part of the LGBT movement, and always have been, yet the movement has focused far more on gay rights than trans* rights, which is clear when you look at where each subgroup stands right now. While same-sex marriage is gaining momentum, trans* people are struggling to get legal recognition for their gender identities. The average age of death for gay people is 68 (still too low, since the national average is 78), while the average age of death for trans* people is 23 (horrifyingly low). Not to mention cases like Intro 475, the anti-discrimination bill in the 70s which only passed once a clause deliberately excluding trans* people was added.
But since you apparently desperately need one specific event: Stonewall. Ever read an account of the riots by someone who was there? They all say the same thing: frustrations had been building among the gay community, as it was then called, over the blatant mistreatment they were receiving from the police. The day the riots started the police went in for a raid and, as per usual, targeted the drag queens (men who dressed in women’s clothing as a performance) and the crossdressers (the commonly used term for transgender people), since it was easier to prove that someone wasn’t wearing the required 3 articles of clothing corresponding to their birth sex than to prove that someone had danced with a member of the same sex. It was then the queens and trans women (Sylvia Rivera is the most famous) who began fighting back against the police, triggering the violence that the rest of the clubgoers in the area joined.