Filmed over five years, HBO documentary 'Transhood' chronicles four American families as they navigate childhood gender transition. Its not cut and dry, she says. The soft-focus documentary,shot in Kansas City, Missouri, and follows four children over the course of five years, doesnt mention much science. All the while poor Jay comforts her, no doubt feeling some semblance of guilt over something that is not at all his fault. They still battle first breakups and unwanted step-parents like anyone else. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Transhood Leena at a modeling audition in "Transhood." In Transhood, director Sharon Liese documents the lives of Phoenix, Avery, Jay, and Leena, four transgender children and teenagers living in Kansas City, over the course of five years. My grandparents lived on the outskirts of Los Angeles in a little shack behind an automobile junkyard. Sarcastic seven-year-old Avery, via her mothers political activism, soon becomes a literal poster child for trans rights. 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. Unlock premium content, ad-free browsing, and access to comments for just $4/month. Here he tries to explain how he feels but she disregards it. Commenters have savaged the clips, with one pundit suggesting that the kids' parents should be hauled "away in handcuffs." Filmed over five years, HBO's 'Transhood' follows four children as they grow up transgender in Kansas City. Transhood Discussion Guide - The stories in Transhood underscore the reality that there is no "single path" for young people who are discovering and articulating their gender identity. They do not. And the parents of spirited four-year-old Phoenix believe their child is gender nonbinary due to their preferred play styles and self-referral as a girl-boy., While Leena commands your attention from the moment shes on screen, its the parents of the other three children who nearly steal the film as they candidly delve into the complications of raising trans children in a culture that invalidates their kids humanity. We meet redheaded charmer Leena at age 15, just four years after the start of her social transition. 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. Slectionnez Grer les paramtres pour grer vos prfrences. TRANSHOOD 9 p.m. on HBO. Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting. Hair is important to 18-year-old Jay, from Kansas City, Mo. According to GLAAD, only 20% of Americans say they personally know someone who is transgender. Anyone who would try to equate the two issues is either lying or delusional. This HBO documentary follows the lives and trajectories of four transgender and gender-nonconforming children in Kansas City. Transhood is not about protecting or advancing the rights of the transgender community but is yet another push by people who lack any sort of moral values to make child exploitation acceptable as long as its veiled under social justice. Following the families over several years allowed Liese to see the young people as they grew up and experienced different triumphs and challenges. 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 natural puberty. 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. Transhood is fixated on transition, and therefore preoccupied with time, or at least that seems to be its intention. Ive done too much in this world. Four kids face typical growing pains like acne, sibling rivalry, divorcing parents, crushes, and breakups. The featured children are: Leena aged 15, Jay, 13, Avery 7, and Phoenix 4. The youngest subject in the film, Phoenix, is just four years old when filming began. It takes place over five years. As a Kansas City native, Liese knows the midwestern city well and was able to deeply embed with the four families she followed. 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. Mike and I had no idea how to navigate this, Cathy said. Directed by Sharon Liese, it follows four children who identify as . We need to stop pretending that doctors have scientific backing for their recommendations to transition children socially and medically. They still battle first breakups and unwanted step-parents like anyone else. We just want them to understand our journey and respect us enough to allow us to do our own thing. Offering no narration, expert talking heads or text interstitials, Liese forgoes contextualizing the culture wars and instead lets her subjects speak for themselves. These caregivers magnetism remains inverse to the age of their offspring: The younger the subject, the more important the parents narrative. vemos a Leena luchando por su objetivo de hacerse una ciruga de confirmacin de gnero al cumplir 19 aos. Looking back on the film now, a year since filming ended, Jay feels he has changed a lot. IE 11 is not supported. Some of the documentarys sweetest moments come during scenes featuring Leenas family. The documentary also sidelines the parents who resist the transgender demands and instead help their children accept their unavoidable biology. February 05, 2021. Were socialized to believe vanity is a harmful, even toxic, personality trait, but vanity can be a lifeline for marginalized people, helping to buoy self-confidence and the projection of power. Grandmom Shirley hopes that people watch their story and it makes them more accepting" of others. Sadly, too many of them dont end well, as indie documentaries have shown. The transgender revolution has been an overnight blitzkrieg. A second segment posted to Twitter by Walsh shines a light on just how far these so-called parents are willing to go to push a new sexual identity onto their children. I just realized that these stories really werent being told and there wasnt that kind of trans representation, over time, about kids, says Liese. They threw the dress away and made sure that I never visited grandmas alone again. The HBO documentary, which follows four transgender and gender-nonconforming children in Kansas City, Mo., over five years, races through their changing and evolving understanding of themselves . , Sharing their most vulnerable moments, the parents reveal their ambivalence, doubts, and missteps as they themselves transform over time.. Im dating a straight man and he sees me as a woman and I was so excited because, like, thats all I wanted. She said that Brian eventually told her that he was using me as a cover up because he was unsure of his identity in the sexual world.. Throughout Transhood, we watch moms and dads struggle with and also support their childrens transitions. Transhood is a film about four transgender kids over the span of five years. Leena, Phoenix, and Jay, ranging in age from 4 to 15) as they redefine "coming of age." . Its these scenes that help to normalize, for viewers, the transition process for children and young people, emphasizing that it is a social process first, during which they may alter their hairstyle, clothing or pronoun preference before considering medical changes. ", How Teddy Geiger is blazing trails for LGBTQ musicians. #BoycottHBO pic.twitter.com/TlyFkmqT6X. Join now to unlock comments, browse ad-free, and access exclusive content from your favorite FDRLST writers. 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. Clips from a new HBO documentary on transgender children are making the rounds on social media. 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. Follow. Avery is prostituted out on the cover of National Geographic, like an animal. All rights reserved | News Punch. Leena just expressed herself much more feminine when she was younger, and we kind of just rolled with it and thought it could be a phase, she told TODAY Parents. Later they decide he's a girl. Ive lived this madness from a young age, and know that twisting childrens minds to the point of questioning or hating who they are is child abuse. Many scenes are fleeting and shorn of a more contemplative approach not only to transgender identity, but also to childhood more broadly. 8 min read. The boy here is 4 years old. Leenas mom Cathy said her daughter, who was born male, began articulating that she wanted to dress as a girl when she was about 3 years old. Nous, Yahoo, faisons partie de la famille de marques Yahoo. 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. 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. Sign up to get unfiltered news delivered straight to your inbox. There is not a lot of trans representation in media, so I knew I had to tell their stories." The documentary follows 12-year-old Jay, 15-year-old Leena, 7-year-old Avery and 4-year-old Phoenix. The youth in Transhood have all undergone social transitions - changing clothes, hair, pronouns, and in most cases, their names to reflect their gender as they experience it. All rights reserved. The film raises controversial questions about parents' motives and secondary gains from an identity as a trans family. And in the story of Phoenix, who was 4 when Liese started filming, we see how childrens relationships with their gender identity are not always clear-cut. Her sobering interviews at the tail-end of filming will genuinely leave you more interested in learning the details of her personal biography than in studying the early gender journey of her middle child. The question is, how do you not believe them? This was true for Jay, who says he understands why people might have these questions, but who knew that he was trans when he was 5. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in three transgender youth has experienced a suicide attempt. Friday, October 23 at 2:15 PM: Suggested Viewing Time . Avery, a male who lives his life as a girl, blasted his far-left activist mother in an upcoming pro-transgender documentary entitled "Transhood.". 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