TransGeneration

I was quite impressed with this documentary. Rather than being exploitive , it was interesting and insightful and treated the four participants as real human beings with more than one dimension. I really wish they would make a follow up to let us know how things have turned out for them all, especially Gabbie. Highly recommended!

"Trans Generation"

Thinking Trans Gender

Amos Lassen

Everyday we seem to learn about the discrepancies of gender. This documentary, an eight part series about four people who are trans-gender (2 men and 2 women) fascinates the eye and ear and opens the mind. All four are college students and we are let into the way they live, who their friends are and how the both face and deal with the world in which they live. We look at what makes "male" and what makes "female" and then at everything in between the two. We know that sexuality is different from gender and still the two seem to be intertwined. When a man identifies himself as gay, bisexual or straight, it has nothing to do with whether he is transsexual or wants to undergo gender reassignment surgery and live in a body that suits him better. Gender Identity Disorder is something that is very real and those that transiting from one sex to another find that they live their lives much more easily.
We meet Raci, a Filipino girl who attends Cal Tech and is not ready yet to share her life with anyone. Her family supports her completely and she has been dressing as a female since she was 9 years old. She maintains a 3.5 GPA and is on a scholarship. Raci is taking female hormones.
TJ is from Cyprus but is going to school in Michigan. When his scholarship ends he is obliged to return to Cyprus for two years and his family does not support him. He thinks his other could get him to return to being Tamar as he was named when born.
Lucas is a male student at an all female college. His mother has tried to accept him and we see how hard it is on a parent to understand and accept that the child they once had is a different gender than the one born into even though they are essentially the same person inside.
Gaby is a female who goes to school in Colorado. She is just learning how to be sociable. She is going to have a sex change operation and her parents support her. Sexually she classifies herself as either bisexual or lesbian.
These four are typical teenagers who have the same problems as their peers but they have that extra gender situation.
The film gives an overall view of the trans community and shows that trans gender people are everywhere. The price that these people pay is high and they manage to deal with the issues. Here is a film that will open your eyes and really make you think.

I enjoyed the series and all the stories, but thought T.J's story was the weakest of the four. T.J. came across as an angry and ungrateful knucklehead and lost my sympathy when he started protesting against the USA and the president of the country where he was a guest. Would an American transsexual have been treated the same way in Cyprus protesting and speaking out against their leadership? I suspect not. I think the series would have been stronger if it had left T.J. on the cutting room floor. Maybe T.J. will grow up someday and realize that good grades and a college degree are nice, but your intelligence doesn't mean a thing if you don't have common sense and behave like a knucklehead.

This documenary really gives good insight into what transgender people go through! I love it!

Before I watched this movie, I had no understanding of the FTM and MTF trans-gendered of the world. But now I'm more open minded. I used to think it was just some taking it too far for life. Unfortunately the trans generation of today is being blown out of proportion, as more and more of the younger kids are claiming "I'm trans-gendered" when in actuality they are just doing what they think they should be doing as that's what society has told them they should do. The same for the actual gay community, being gay is in right now, so is being trans-gendered. A lot of the young "femmes" feel that they can date a "FTM" and still be considered str8, where the actuality is that they are still sleeping with a woman as the FTM they are into aren't really gay, but playing a role.

But I would love to get an update at least every 6 months to a year to see how their lives are moving along. Either that or I'd love to met the participants in the documentary.