Why the TransJourney Documentary Is Important to Me.

It was about 16 months ago that I sat down with my cousin Deb Monuteaux and her partner Alexia Kosmider at a Denny's in Warwick, RI when they brought up the idea of making a documentary about our transgender daughter Annabelle, our friend Shannon and myself.  They had met Annabelle earlier the previous summer when she was visiting us.  The idea was that this documentary would show how being transgender should not be the only thing that defines you and that someone who is transgender is really no different than anyone else.  The fact that someone is transgender is just something that happened to them.  Some people have an eidetic memory, or like my daughter, have eyes that are 2 different colors.  Being transgender should be looked at no differently than those types of occurrences.

I want people to look at Annabelle and Shannon and see that they are not much different than who they were before they transitioned.  I say "not much different" because I believe they are better people than they were before they transitioned.  I know Annabelle is because I've seen it in how she carries herself and in her spirit. She is much happier, as though her soul is lighter and her head is clearer.  Yet she is still much the same as she was before.  She has the same interests she had before she transitioned; yet she's added new ones as well.  She also dresses nicer and phones her mother more often--both a significant improvement!

I only met Shannon through Annabelle after Shannon transitioned.  But I know she's in a much happier place living her life as the woman she always was meant to be.  I wish her family would understand and accept that Shannon, who I have "adopted" as the sister I never had, needed to live an authentic life. Shannon loves her family deeply and it hurts her greatly to feel so rejected by them.  If only they would bring her back into their lives, they could see how much she is still the same parent, just better!

In the past couple of years, I have since met a number of transgender people and parents of transgender youth, and nearly all of them say they or their children are so much happier after transitioning.  I say "nearly all" because some of them have not completely transitioned yet or have other issues impacting their lives as well.  It really hurts me to hear the stories of rejection and denial of parents when their child tells them they are transgender.  I find it difficult to understand how a parent, or other family member, could disown or disrespect and denigrate their own child or parent for just being transgender.

I am hoping that with this documentary film, we can educate people about what it means to live as a transgender person and help dispel the misinformation and eliminate the prejudice that exists towards those who are transgender or gender non-conforming.  I also want parents and family members to know how important it is to embrace and love their family member who has identified themselves as transgender.  They need your love and support even more at this time.

I don't know that this will be addressed in the film, but I would also like to dispel the myth of a gender binary that we all grew up with.  It's time that the concept of a gender binary goes the way of the concept that the earth is flat.  Maybe then everyone will finally accept that gender is more than just pink or blue.