Transhood

In TRANSHOOD, filmmaker Sharon Liese followed four trans-identified children in the Kansas City area over five years, revealing insights that many outside the community may not have contemplated. We meet Avery, who famously and controversially appeared on the cover of National Geographic magazine in 2017 at age 9 with the headline "Gender Revolution." She'd been a visible trans activist for a few years at that point, guided by her mother. As we follow Avery, she becomes less interested in being a public figure, and now says she's done talking about her story. "We’re not some exotic species -- we’re human," she says. "We do human things, we have human emotions, we’re human just born a little bit different."



Leena is an aspiring model who started taking hormone blockers at 15. In some ways, Leena is like a typical teen girl who loves hanging out with her best friend, dates her first boyfriend, and embarrasses her father while shopping for a bikini. Her parents are unfailingly supportive and loving, particularly when they take her to San Francisco to see an acclaimed sex reassignment surgeon who tells Leena "In nature, God doesn’t get it exactly divided into two camps. I deconstruct genitals and build them back up -- we’re just turning back the clock, basically."



When we meet the youngest child in the documentary, 4-year-old Phoenix identifies as a "girl-boy," who over the next couple of years identifies as a girl. Phoenix's parents are confused about the shifting nature of their middle child's identity but join the activist community and remain supportive. After Phoenix's parents divorce and the children go to public school (they had been homeschooled), Phoenix announces that he wants to live as a boy (which is still true today). His mother acknowledges that she had a complete reversal in her thinking about transgender youth.



Jay's story is the most poignant, as he and his mother navigate hormone therapy at age 12, his first girlfriend, being forced out of the closet, and his mother's relationship with a woman whom Jay doesn't care for at first. In intimate talks with his mother and through doctor visits we see how important physically transitioning is for Jay and how financially and emotionally difficult it is for his mother. In a post-documentary interview Jay has advice for parents: "Listen to what [your children] want, listen to what they need. They’ll respect that and know you’re their number one supporter."