Anyone can read what you share. I think it had the most of her voice, rather than her parents (which certainly is affected by age, as she was a high school freshman when filming started). If you don . Such is the case with HBO's new documentary Transhood, which follows four transgender individuals Leena, Phoenix, Avery, . A lot of trans people do hide. W hat is happening is described in a documentary entitled Transhood, released last November 12. The findings of Olsons study emphasize the importance of affirmative models of care recommended by both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians, which are focused on understanding and appreciating a young persons gender experience in a non-judgemental way. But the older subjects Jay (12), who has to negotiate being out as transgender at school, and Leena (15), an aspirational model, land as more engaging. Every parent reading this should immediately stop and go watch HBOs Transhood (2020) documentary. Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter. When you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission. A new HBO Max documentary, "Transhood," follows for five years the lives of four Kansas City, Mo. Over time, I became increasing uncomfortable with myself as a boy, to the point of disliking myself as Walt and adopting a secret female name at age 13. 2023 The Federalist, A wholly independent division of FDRLST Media. TRANSHOOD. The kids and their families are generally open about the challenges of growing up transgender and how it . The story of 4 year old Phoenix was fascinating. According to a 2018 report from the Human Rights Campaign, over half of transgender or gender-expansive youth say they have been mocked by their family for their identity, and three in four hear their family make negative remarks about LGBTQ people. Long Waits, Short Appointments, Huge Bills. Liese also follows Avery, who was 7 when filming began, as she sits for a portrait for the cover of National Geographics 2017 Gender Revolution issue and faces the pressure that comes with media attention. What Parents Need to Know. Why is that suddenly not on the news, Mom? I see now that medical transitioninjecting female hormones and undergoing multiple surgical proceduresto destroy the male me was a form of self-abuse not unlike drinking to excess. Yet, we see these young people muster prodigious strength facing a world that often denies them their identities. The film premiered at the AFI Docs Festival on June 19, 2020 and was released on HBO and HBO Max on November 12, 2020. I quickly realized that is not the question. Starting when I was four years old, my dad would drop me off at my maternal grandparents house after work on Friday so he and my mom could take off for weekends of camping and fishing. Sarcastic seven-year-old Avery, via her mothers political activism, soon becomes a literal poster child for trans rights. One widely shared clip shows a unitarian universalist church recognizing an apprehensive Phoenix as a girl at his mother's prodding. . It is definitely hard to come out to someone that you care about. Also included is Avery, who was already quoted in the media at the age of 7 and appeared on the cover of National Geographic, among others. If I sell my book, its going to be on the news along with me for like the 50th time at this point, and its just going to make my life worse, Avery says. I lived as a woman for the next eight years. Even over five years, observations about them remain shallow. Although Phoenixs parents eventually divorce and have different views on parenting Phoenix, Liese says that the message from that story is that you really just need to love your kids, and let them lead, and that you can never go wrong by affirming your child.. Averys hair is dyed purple and pink. Today, watching this documentary, I marvel at how the events of my childhood groomed me into believing that identifying as the opposite sex was the solution to my gender confusion. Slectionnez Grer les paramtres pour grer vos prfrences. For younger, more rambunctious subjects like Avery (7 at the beginning of filming in 2014) and the gender-fluid Phoenix (4), the camera often has to chase them, making it difficult to capture in a cohesive way how they personally explore their gender identity. Its a rude awakening to this young person affirmed by his parents and medical providers that hes not the sex he was born as that straight boys are highly unlikely to view other biological males as female. The eye-opening and heartfelt . In the film, viewers see how Jay expresses his identity, particularly in two scenes with his barber, who is also a trans man. Filmed over five years in Kansas City, this documentary follows four kids - beginning at ages 4, 7, 12, and 15 - as they redefine "coming of age." These kids and their families reveal intimate realities of how gender is re-shaping the family next door in a never-before-told chronicling of growing up transgender in the heartland. '", Every single family that goes through this has a different experience, Cathy said. It takes place over five years. Research psychologist Kristiana Olson of the University of Washington, an advocate for transitioning children, put it this way: We just dont have definitive data one way or the other. She is leading a study to track outcomes of several hundred children over 20 years to be able to, hopefully, answer which children should or should not transition, she said. Toward the end of the documentary, Leena, who was 19 when filming ended, discusses future plans for gender confirmation surgery with her parents and gender affirmation surgeon Dr. Marci Bowers. I just dont want to even have a book. Two of the children, 12-year-old Jay (a girl who identifies as a boy) and 15-year-old Leena (the opposite), have been placed on hormone pharmaceuticals by their parents in order to suppress their . A video clip from the HBO documentary "Transhood" ignited major backlash as disturbed social media users expressed anger and dismay at a young boy being encouraged to publicly announce his . The United States was founded on theideals that every individual deserves tobe free and that includes children who are being abused and indoctrinated by their parents about sexual identity long before they should even be thinking of the words. We already have evidence beyond common sense and life experience that shows transgendering children is child abuse. Some older children make the decision along with parents and doctors, like Jay did when he was 12, to take hormone blockers to delay puberty. , Sharing their most vulnerable moments, the parents reveal their ambivalence, doubts, and missteps as they themselves transform over time.. 2023 The Federalist, A wholly independent division of FDRLST Media. . You don't have to like us. Just as my grandma disrupted my normal boy development by affirming me in a dress, the adults in the documentary are disrupting the normal development of four children by allowing them to experiment with social transition, that is, the adoption of a false identity. Does Leena have a social media page I . Three of the children are far too young even to begin to think about sex or what gender they are. To which he responds, Yeah, I did, but that was a really stupid silly mistake, and now I dont.. When we abuse children psychologically in this way when we affirm them in this delusion that theyre born in the wrong body, we are making it far more difficult for them to embrace reality.. In less than a decade, the Democratic party, the media, the entertainment industry, and much of academia have thrown their weight behind . 17 States Support Texas Lawsuit Filed With The Supreme Court, MADE IN CHINA: Swalwell Blames Trump for Chinese Spy Story Theyre Not Gonna Silence Me, by Sean Adl-Tabatabai in Sponsored Before the age of 12, he was severely bullied in school for having long hair and wearing clothing typically marketed to boys. Sign up to get unfiltered news delivered straight to your inbox. A new documentary film explores the lives of transgender kids at different stages in their lives and how they are navigating their everyday lives while The human brain is not fully developed until around the age of 25, according to theUniversity of Rochester Medical Center, so why would any reasonable human being think that is OK to have a child born male live as a female? A landmark study by Dr Kristina Olson in 2019 showed that gender-nonconforming kids who go on to transition already have a strong sense of their true identityone that differs from their assigned gender. Some have been called child abusers. I hear from so many distraught adults and parents of children about the regrettable and often gruesome consequences of being indoctrinated into changing genders that I assembled 30 representative stories into a book, Trans Life Survivors, to give a glimpse of what the survivors of changing genders have to say about what they endured. It follows four so-called "trans" (a term loved by those who want to pigeonhole them) children for five years and describes what would seem impossible. In any case, this appears to be a horrible case of child exploitation in the name of a political agenda that should make anyone who cares about personal liberty sick. Menu. The documentary also sidelines the parents who resist the transgender demands and instead help their children accept their unavoidable biology. Avery, Leena, and Phoenix. Ultimately, the film is as much a call to action to advocate for legislation protecting trans rights as it is a portrayal of the complexity of transgender lives. He sees the film as a broader coming out, where more of the people he went to community college and graduated with will learn that he is trans and understand more about his experience. pubescent Jay, elementary schooler Avery and preschool-aged Phoenix, are developmentally less self-possessed than teenage Leena, so Liese (and the audience) must instead rely on their parents to articulate their childrens emotional states. Jackson is one of four transgender kids profiled in " Transhood ," a tender-hearted documentary that humanizes trans kids while avoiding many of the usual gawking pitfalls. With meticulously manicured talons and a glossy copper mane flowing down her back, she dreams of becoming a runway model. The other two, 7-year-old Avery (a boy who identifies as a girl) and 4-year-old Phoenix (the same) are not receiving hormone drugs but they are dressed in female clothing and referred to as girls. She parades him around to show him off while he is visibly in despair. Vous pouvez modifier vos choix tout moment en consultant vos paramtres de vie prive. For 80-year-old Shirley, the most important thing is love. We are manufacturing transgender kids, saidWalt Heyer, founder ofSex Change Regret. As Leena deals with the disappointment of her first love and works towards becoming a fashion model, she also experiences her personal goal of gender confirmation surgery when she turns 19. Transgender Institute also runs support groups, therapy and mentoring for its young trans community in Kansas City. These young people and their families reveal the intimate realities of how they deal with the new era of social media, bathroom bills, gender expansion, and an often-changing . If a Christian couple had a son who came out as a homosexual and the parents response was to send him to a so-called straight camp, the establishment media and their progressive allies would have a field day plastering the couples faces nationwide, branding them as bigots and homophobes. People ask me, how do kids know when they are four years old? According to GLAAD, only 20% of Americans say they personally know someone who is transgender. It will enlighten, depress, and alarm you all at once, and its the best way to understand the crisis thats happening with so many of Americas children. Ive done too much in this world to ruin my life enough and now everyone in this world is going to know if I sell my book, its going to get on the news along with me for, like, the 50th time at this point, and its just going to make my life worse., Averys mother: A couple years ago you wanted people to know. He also sees it as vital to show different aspects of what it means to be trans, and dispel some of the intolerance and misperceptions about trans people. These caregivers magnetism remains inverse to the age of their offspring: The younger the subject, the more important the parents narrative. The HBO documentary tracks the children over five years, but regrettable outcomes from transgender treatments often occur years, even decades, later, when the thrill of transition wears off. Another scene shows a mother visibly coaxing her son who no . Following the families over several years allowed Liese to see the young people as they grew up and experienced different triumphs and challenges. Leena. Like being a teenager is just hard enough on its own, Leena says during one scene. Now 19, Leena is one of the subjects in "Transhood," a new HBO MAX documentary that profiles four transgender children and their families in the Kansas City area. Grandma, a seamstress, stayed at home fashioning dresses for customers. The minors are 15-year-old "Leena," 13-year-old "Jay," 7-year-old Avery, and 4-year-old Phoenix (these are the ages they are first . Documentaries such as this one from HBO Max depict confused children and their parents participating in a grand social experiment under the misguided assumption that affirmation of cross-gender identities equals love. "I hope that the documentary opens people's eyes and opens people's minds," says one of its subjects In addition to Transhood and the TRANSlation Summit, HBO Max has plenty of content to celebrate Transgender Awareness Week (November 13-19).One of them is the new HBO Max original Veneno which . I remember sitting on the porch, watching grandma cut and stitch pieces of purple chiffon cloth into a beautiful full-length evening dress for me, her four-year-old grandson. Of course, most parents of teenagers have heard the youve ruined my life line. 'Transhood' Is a Profoundly Moving Documentary About Growing Up Trans, While 'Industry' Is a Likable Drama About Profoundly Unlikable People . Watch Now. Jay, 12; Avery, 7; Leena, 15; and Phoenix, 4. Its the parents here Im more worried about. While depictions of transgender people onscreen appear to be evolving for the better, with more transgender people both in front of and behind the camera in critically acclaimed films and series including Orange Is the New Black, A Fantastic Woman and Pose, they largely focus on transgender adults. Bowers is a man who identifies as a woman. Hes also dragged to Washington, D.C., for a protest and to sign copies of an illustrated book, under his name, about being a transgender child. Its worth repeating that these arent random people I found on Tik Tok. Following a . Cutting my hair was one of the biggest things that happened to me through the transition because it made me feel like I am me, he says. Filmed over five years in Kansas City, this documentary follows four transgender kids - beginning at ages 4, 7, 12, and 15 - as they redefine "coming of age.". Shot over five years in the Kansas City area, "Transhood" follows four children starting at ages 4, 7, 12 and 15 as they navigate emotional, social and sometimes physical transitions. In a landmark case in the United Kingdom high court brought by two people treated as children at the nations sole gender clinic, Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), judges were surprised that GIDS did not track data about their patients, even while under their care. 15-year-old Leena, a transgender girl with designs on a Victoria's Secret modeling career and reassignment . We meet redheaded charmer Leena at age 15, just four years after the start of her social transition. "I've known Leena since the day she was born and have taken care of her since she was two months old so I've seen lots of changes," her grandmother told TODAY. Join now to unlock comments, browse ad-free, and access exclusive content from your favorite FDRLST writers, Eddie Scarry is the D.C. columnist at The Federalist and author of ". November 24, 2020 by Murphy Moroney. Its ruined my life and now everyone in this world is going to know. I am Jay.. However, at least one scene should serve as a warning to any parent thinking of allowing their child to transition. It confirms the pain, uncertainty, and endless search for holistic personhood. Transhood ended their coverage at five years, but I havent seen the big media documentary sharing the real-life stories from people at 10, 15, and 20 years after they go down this path. Transhood. The documentary Transhood is years in the making as it follows four transgender youths for five years of their young lives. It left a bad taste in my mouth and validated the concern I had seen on social media prior to watching "Transhood" for myself. The secret crossdressing game with grandma went on for about two years and ended abruptly when my mom and dad learned about it. Filmed over five years in Kansas City, Transhood chronicles the lives of four young people (aged 4, 7, 12, and 15 at the start of filming) and their families as they navigate growing up transgender in Americas heartland., By sharing personal realities of how gender expression is reshaping their lives, the film explores how these families struggle and stumble through parenting, and how the kids are challenged and transformed as they experience the complexity of their identities., Directed by Sharon Liese, produced by Sasha Alpert (Autism: The Musical), and executive-produced by Kimberly Reed, Transhood offers a long-range understanding of transgender youth through the nuanced and authentic stories of Jay, Avery, Leena, and Phoenix., While every journey is different, these families share their honest and varied experiences as the young people display incredible resilience, facing rejection from their peers and escalating political rhetoric that strives to invalidate LGBTQ+ lives. 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