I saw the documentary Transgender
Tuesdays. The film is
structured in two parts. The first, entitled “The Bad Old Days” discussed the
history of trans* people in America, told through interviews with individuals
old enough to remember what it was like to grow up trans* in the 60s, 70s, and
80s. The second part focused on the Tom Waddell Health Center in the Tenderloin
and their single-handed endeavor to provide health care and basic compassion to
trans* people in San Francisco.
The people
interviewed for the film told varied, but equally harrowing stories about
growing up in between genders in a very binary world. These people have been
raped, abused, and psychologically traumatized from a very early age, and many
share similar stories of prostitution, making porn, suicide attempts, and drug
use. Another thing they have in common is incredible resilience.
Before Tom
Waddell started Transgender Tuesdays, trans* people in San Francisco were dying
in the streets instead of seeking medical help because they had been rejected
and mistreated by clinics and hospitals so many times before. Just by
displaying compassion and living up to the Hippocratic Oath, doctors and nurses
at Tom Waddell were able to incite incredible change and save hundreds of
lives. They were able to bring trafficking of hormones and silicone off the
street into a safe space where trans* people didn’t feel threatened, a feeling
that is exceedingly rare in such a disadvantaged, feared and misunderstood
community.
This movie
made me very reflective of the damaging nature of strict gender roles. The fact that people are
actually driven to kill just because another person doesn’t fit into their
“appropriate” sex is so hard for me to understand. As Tom Waddell shows, change
is coming. But there’s still so far to go. Why is there so much fear associated
with sex and gender? I hope that projects and films like this continue to be made and
watched so that others can see for themselves that trans* people are nothing to
fear.
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