By: Victoria Hincapie Gomez Date: June.10, 2022
Yesterday I was watching a documentary in HBO that portrays the life of five transgender kids throughout the span of 5 years, called Transhood. The purpose of this documentary was to highlight the lifes of 5 kids-teens in miscellaneous key periods of their lives , from coming out , the adaptation of friends and families into their new identity, public reactions outside the family circle, etc.
After watching this documentary that my dad talked to me about , I got to think about how relevant it is in today's society , more than it was upon its release in 2020. In these 6 months of 2022 legislations in Florida banning teachers to mention anything LGBTQ+ related have taken place, at least 14 transgender people have been shot or killed in the U.S according to the Human Rights Campaign, and three days ago Texas Legislator Brian Slaton was outspoken about his intention of banning drag queens to be around children.
These facts and statistics that only cover the U.S are not that distinct from statistics of countries in Latin America such as Colombia , that happen to have so far the same numbers of murders against trans-queer people as in the U.S. But this is not what it has been verbalized and highly covered by republicans in positions of power , instead they have been given a voice by newspapers to declare their dismay born out of the exposure kids have nowadays to people of varying identities and backgrounds.
Now that I ponder deeply about this , I clearly get their reasoning. Of course is a subject of importance to get your kids as far as possible from ''Those people'' that do not cause any harm whatsoever , rather than getting them away from priests , who throughout history have raped children under the word of god. But I guess that if it happens under a church , then is morally correct, right ? The irony of it all.
These same people that want to keep their kids away from what Brian Slaton described as ''perverted adults'', are the same that time after time try to push legislations such as banning trans kinds from entering bathrooms not corresponding to their assigned sex at birth, emphasis in assigned not chosen. This sort of information is important to keep in the back of your mind , especially if you are a parent of a trans child-teen or friend of one, because you don't want to surround yourself with someone whose ideals go against your loved one's existence or ignores their human rights.
What makes Transhood so great , is the fact that more than being simply a documentary , it works as a guide for parents unfamiliar with what it means to be trans and teaches them how to properly react to it, Instead of obliterating their child's feelings and belittling their gender dysphoria.
My parents and the parents depicted in Transhood didn't necessarily had a role model of how to approach a trans kid-teen , but when I came out officially as trans , my parents told me that although this was unknown territory for them they would always love me and be there for me.Sometimes I take this for granted , because under my perspective a parent's responsibility is to love their child no matter what, but not all parents fulfil this responsibility. So I shouldn't take it for granted in any case.
Transitioning itself as a word implies change , to open a new door , normally one out your own comfort zone. At first I didn't quite get how my transition represented a transition into the live of everyone around me , those who knew me before I was my authentic self, long before I opened my eyes , and saw what was missing in my life.
I understand it know , but my parents and friends didn't lost me when I openly became the woman I am today ,I was lost way before then in the outskirts of my subconscious nowhere to be found. I eventually found myself , kilometres away from home.
It took time for my friends and family to really get used to what under their eyes , was a new me. At first they made mistakes and called me multiple times by my deadname , they once in awhile still do, however most of them have never looked upon me as a joke or have invalidated my feelings as a confusion stage. Something that unfortunately many trans kids-teens have to face on a daily basis.
This is for parents and friends of a trans individual : Stand up for your child/ friend when someone tries to bring he/she/they down ,educate yourself about what it means to be trans and it's social implications, don't exposed them as trans if they are not ready , try your best to put on their shoes , call them by their chosen pronouns, and most importantly , love them.
I hope you liked it , feel free to comment down below
References
A Texas Legislator Is Proposing Banning Drag Queens Around Minors. https://cafemom.com/news/texas-drag-queen-ban/drag-shows-are-no-place-for-a-child-wrote-republican-rep-slaton-on-twitter
Durante 2022, 14 personas de la comunidad LGBTI han sido asesinadas. https://www.radionacional.co/actualidad/comunidad-lgbti-14-personas-han-sido-asesinadas-en-2022
Fatal Violence Against The Transgender and Nonconforming community in 2022.https://www.hrc.org/resources/fatal-violence-against-the-transgender-and-gender-non-conforming-community-in-2022
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