In the Life: Becoming Me (full episode) Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Youth 

neutrois:

This is really EXCELLENT! Everything is explained so clearly, and it showcases a variety of transgender, gender non-conforming, and genderqueer youth and their parents.

Eight families with transgender and gender non-conforming children ranging in ages from 5 to 25 share their stories. With the healthy development of their children at stake, parents must confront binary perceptions of gender, widespread transphobia and controversial parenting decisions.

Join us for an hour-long online discussion in the comments section below on April 3, 2012 at 5:30pm Eastern/ 4:30pm Central / 2:30pm PSD. In The Life Media Staff Producer Kathryn Morrison will be online and available to respond to questions and comments. She will be joined by PFLAG’s Howard County, MD Transgender Network Coordinator Catherine Hyde, Gender Spectrum Director of Education and Training Joel Baum, and author of the book, “Gender Born, Gender Made,” Developmental and Clinical Psychologist Diane Ehrensaft. The discussion is an ideal place for parents, families, friends and advocates of transgender and gender non-conforming children to share their experiences and ask questions.

This was an amazing show. I love seeing stories like these because they reassure me that not all parents are cissexist bigots that their kids have to hide their gender identity from. Also, the idea of being able to gender transition from such a young age, not having to go through puberty or have long term friendships in the wrong body, is such an uplifting idea.

A few random thoughts about the video:

Skylar’s shirt is amazing, kind of a bas-relief image of BBC!Sherlock doing a Rubik’s Cube. And considering he has a Doctor Who poster in his room, I betcha he’s on Tumblr somewhere. Skylar, if you ever read this: Where did you get that shirt, it’s fantastic.

My one gripe about this otherwise magnificent show: “Gender identity refers to a person’s innate sense of their gender, while sexual orientation refers to whom the person is romantically attracted to.” (Emphasis mine) That made my heart drop, I must admit. I can’t believe such a forward thinking and supposedly gender-and-sexuality knowledgeable show is unable to properly define sexual orientation. I mean, doesn’t it sound wrong? Sexual and romantic attraction are not even sort of the same thing. I guess it wasn’t really the point of the show and therefore might not have come up in their research, but still.

Which just makes me long for a similar show focused on the difference between sexual and romantic orientation, and all the many variances within. Maybe there already is and I just haven’t heard of it. Either way, hearing that was the low point of the otherwise fantastic show.