BECOMING MORE VISIBLE, – A burgeoning crisis
Posted by Melanie Nathan, January 25, 2014.
From behind the lens of photographer Josh Lehrer, a groundbreaking film will tell the compelling stories of five, homeless transgender teens. Their backgrounds are diverse, but their stories are strikingly similar. Rejected by their families and lured to New York City with the hope of finding connection and love, many of these trans teens instead find themselves again rejected and homeless.
Producers have noted:
“After years of exploring this topic we now want to turn an inquisitive lens to the society at large; a society that refuses to acknowledge a broad spectrum of gender expression and to ask them some pertinent questions:
•What do homeless trans teens have to teach our community about life, culture, family, safety and love?
• If trans people have been around since the beginning of civilization, why has our culture been the one to so profoundly let them down?
• What does this massive dismissal say about us?
• And if nothing is wasted in this world, then what are the lessons implied in embracing these kids, rather than casting them out?
• Would it mean we would have to become more loving, more celebratory, more open and more willing to cherish the differences in all people?
• And what, ultimately, does this out of hand rejection say about the responsibility that human beings have for one another?
Whatever the answers, it starts with, BECOMING MORE VISIBLE.
Producer/Director Pamela French and Photographer/Producer Josh Lehrer are presently, trying to raise money through Kickstarter, a crowd-funding site, for the film BECOMING MORE VISIBLE – they have created and posted a trailer about the film which can be found here –http://kck.st/1cWHQ9t
Ms. French notes that the filmmakers are seeking help in completing this film:
“We would also appreciate if you’re moved by the trailer to please make a donation, big or small, so that this documentary can BECOME MORE VISIBLE to ALL!”
BECOMING MORE VISIBLE
KICKSTARTER http://kck.st/1cWHQ9t
Like us here FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/becomingmorevisible
Tweet about us here @bvthefilm.com
Widget Preview for Kickstarter page:
Always coming out…. It’s a constant process and absolutely necessary. Trans people are some of the bravest people I’ve ever met. I’m in awe of their courage to Be who they Are…
Thank you for this post,
Steve
Reblogged this on JerBear's Queer World News, Views & More From The City Different – Santa Fe, NM and commented:
I will never forget my first encounter with this crisis. It was 988 and I was accompanying an outreach worker from the Herrick Martin Institute as a part of a fact finding visit to New York City to view the work being done to reach LGBTQ (although those initials were not used widely yet) street youth. I was acquiring knowledge and experience to use in establishing an outreach program in Worcester, Massachusetts,,, (which we did). Back to the new observations made while outreach was going on. After seeing youth on the piers who were hanging out, vouging and sex work with men (I even saw a kid get into a large limo as curtains were closed). We then walked to the meat packing district where, ironically, trans* sex workers had their stroll. It had started to rain and their she was this small trans* teen girl shivering and looking miserable. We of course approached her but the encounter was brief? Still, that encounter left an indelible impression in my mind. It was the very beginning as a Trans* ally. So this is a film I definitely want to see. Thanks, Melanie, for sharing this with us.
What does it teach us?
Simple: Society is absolutely insane about maintaining the [heterosexual] gender binary, to the point of disowning their sons and daughters, rejecting anything that doesn’t follow gender binary conventions, even for some to the point of locking up and murdering people for crossing such lines.
We have a society built up in sexual insecurity, ignorance, and excels at hatred of others for being any sort of different. Religious people use their holy book to denounce LGBT people, and the whole LGBT movement itself greatly ignores the T part quite consistently. People at large are completely and totally ignorant about trans* people, especially when it comes to trans* women (trans* men are invisible since it’s okay to be a guy, never okay to be a girl), and since it doesn’t affect them personally they have no real care to understand either.
Most people rather toss trans* women (again, most trans* men run invisible) in the garbage because the patriarchy is too afraid that they might be attracted to a girl who was REALLY BORN A GUY, OMG THAT MAKES ME GAY. It’s not a difficult to grasp concept here: sexually insecure men hate anything that could make them out to be gay, ya know, the worst thing one could ever be in the history of ever.
In other words, being trans*, for a lot of people, doesn’t matter how much of a biological reality it is. Lot of society just simply doesn’t have what it takes to – *BY CHOICE* – accept people like that, and if you’re born trans* you’ve pretty much either are going to have to accept the way the world is and hate yourself for the rest of your life, be one of the lucky ones who can transition and not turn up homeless, or just basically sign your own death warrant by being unlucky and screwed.
People will argue XX vs XY but they won’t take any look further to see masculinization of the brain during fetal development based upon how much free floating testosterone is in the womb that controls such, regardless of XX or XY… People aren’t looking to be educated, they are looking to have their existing ignorance affirmed – why you think so many people watch Fox News? They aren’t looking for education, they’re looking to have their stupid ignorant pre-conceived notions validated.
We have a nation full of morons and you think they’re going to care about homeless trans people? They’re going to fucking laugh at them and say “GOOD!”
”Transgendered”