“Hi friends, I want to share with you that I am trans, my pronouns are he/they and my name is Elliot. I feel lucky to be writing this. To be here. To have arrived at this place in my life,” he wrote.

“I can’t begin to express how remarkable it feels to finally love who I am enough to pursue my authentic self. I’ve been endlessly inspired by so many in the trans community,” he said. “Thank you for your courage, your generosity and ceaselessly working to make this world a more inclusive and compassionate place. I will offer whatever support I can and continue to strive for a more loving and equal society.”

Welcome to the world, Elliot!

The post ‘Umbrella Academy’ star comes out as trans first appeared on Lesbian.com.

Awkward, self-conscious Adam Freeman (Nicholas Alexander) has just finished his junior year of high school in 2006. When his cool older sister Casey (Margaret Qualley) suggests he visit her in New York for the Summer, Adam has visions of meeting a girl and finally gaining some actual life experience. The fantasy doesn’t materialize exactly as expected. Casey has enthusiastically embraced life amidst Brooklyn’s young LGBTQ community and invites Adam to tag along with her to queer bars, marriage equality rallies and other happenings. When Adam falls at first sight for Gillian (Bobbi Salvör Menuez), a smart, beautiful young woman in this new crowd, she mistakenly assumes he is trans. Flummoxed and enamored, he haplessly goes along with her assumption, resulting in an increasingly complex comedy – and tragedy – of errors he’s ill-equipped to navigate.

“A step forward in representation.” – The Hollywood Reporter

“Spirited turns by numerous trans performers who lay it all out.” – Variety

“A charming, timely rom-com.” – The Playlist

“A learning lesson and a conversation starter for transgender issues” – Out Magazine

“Bobbi Salvör Menuez’s meatiest film role to date.” – Vanity Fair

The post Adam first appeared on Lesbian.com.

When Sid comes out as a woman, a fourteen year old boy named RALPH (Jamie Mayers) shows up at her door announcing that Sid is his dad. Ralph, surprised to discover that his biological father is now a woman, thinks having a transgender parent is “pretty cool”. But Ralph hasn’t told his mother and stepfather that he’s tracked her down. And then there is Sid’s boyfriend DANIEL (Pierre-Yves Cardinal) who has yet to tell his family of his relationship with Sid. Daniel is nowhere near ready to accept Ralph as a step son and complicate his life further.

Sid’s coming out has a snowball effect that forces everyone out of the closet and to get real. What happens when gender, generations and cultures collide to create a truly modern family?

“Culture-crossing comedy with a transgender twist.” – The Georgia Straight

“Charming dramedy; pure soap opera.” – NOW Toronto

The post Venus first appeared on Lesbian.com.

BFFs Kim, Momo and Bella are bullied by boys at school while their teachers do nothing. On top of that, Kim secretly confesses to Bella she thinks she was born in the wrong body. So when the trio finds a magical plant whose nectar temporarily turns them into boys (with working genitalia), it offers them the thrilling chance to experience freedoms they’ve never known. But when Kim becomes addicted to the plant and pursues a dangerous relationship with a local boy she thinks might be gay, it puts everyone at risk.

Though GIRLS LOST is sure to enter the pantheon of lesbian teen films alongside titles like TIMES SQUARE and SHOW ME LOVE, the film is sure to be beloved by gay, trans, and bisexual fans as well.

The post Girls Lost first appeared on Lesbian.com.

Kristin served for over 20 years as a member of the elite special forces Navy SEALs on SEAL Team 1 as well as the United States Special Warfare Development Group what many in the public refer to as SEAL Team 6. She retired in 2011 with the rank of Senior Chief and continued high-level clearance work for the United States government and the Pentagon.

But Kristin hid her true identity throughout and after her service knowing she would lose it all if anyone were to know her secret. In 2013, a year and a half after retirement, Kristin came out publicly first on LinkedIn and on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 soon thereafter. Many friends, colleagues and family were taken by surprise.

This film brings exclusive interviews from Kristin’s family and friends about her service, as well as their reactions to her coming out. It also includes exclusive footage of Chris Beck in training and combat. The documentary was filmed only a few months after the AC360 piece had aired, and the truth is still fresh and emotional for those closest to her. While many people have been supportive, some in the public have expressed more bigotry than she ever expected. After a lifetime of service, Kristin has learned that her fight for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness did not end on the battlefield.

Listed on Huffington Post’s
“10 Films Every Human Rights Advocate Should Watch”

FOUR STARS! “Lady Valor ultimately sells hope” — New York Daily News

“A powerful documentary” — Huffington Post

“Inspiring… her hard-won wholeness challenges each of us to our own gender bravery.”— Psychology Today

“Poignant” — The Buffalo News

“Fascinating tale” — The Boston Globe

“Comprehensive and compassionate” — Edge, San Francisco

“There is no trace of bitterness, no subtext of resentment… Which is why this film about pain will leave most in the audience smiling.” — The Austin Chronicle

The post Lady Valor: The Kristin Beck Story first appeared on Lesbian.com.

At home with her parents and girlie younger sister, she is Laure. But with her new pals, she embraces her new identity as Mikael. Finding resourceful ways to hide her true self, Laure takes advantage of her new identity, hoping summer never brings an end to her fun.

Céline Sciamma brings a light and charming touch to this contemporary coming-of-age story. It’s a touching story about relationships between children, between children and parents, and the even more complicated one between one’s heart and one’s body.

The post Tomboy first appeared on Lesbian.com.

Shy (Howard) is a small-town loner who blows off a diner job and thumbs to San Francisco to pursue a life of petty crime. Along the way, Shy stumbles into the off-kilter Valentine (Dodge). An unexpected friendship sparks, as they steal and grift their way towards understanding themselves and the world around them.

Co-starring performance artiste’ Stanya Kahn and super sexy San Francisco dyke poet Carina Gia.

The post By Hook or By Crook first appeared on Lesbian.com.

On November 21, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Trans (But Were Afraid To Ask) by Brynn Tannehill — Trans activist, writer, and former Naval Aviator — was released by Jessica Kingsley Publishers. This groundbreaking book was written to shed light on biased research and bad science and to inform both those that identify as Trans and those that do not about issues that face the Trans community. Reviewers are calling this an “essential” read that is both “passionate “and “humorous.” Below is an excerpt from the book, introducing the chapter on how the Trans community is represented by the media and popular culture.

Transgender people in the US, and elsewhere, are being included in popular culture and in the media more than they ever have been in the past. We’re in the news with the attempt at banning us from the military. TV shows such as Orange Is the New Black, Transparent, and Sense8 have featured prominent transgender characters played by transgender actors. In general, these have been portrayals that were well received by critics. Transparent features two transgender actors as recurring characters. Actress Laverne Cox won an Emmy for her work as an executive producer on MTV’s Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word. Tangerine was centered on the lives of transgender women of color, featured transgender actors in the lead roles, and received critical acclaim.

The TransMilitary documentary, directed by Fiona Dawson and Gabriel Silverman, which was first screened at South-by-Southwest in 2018, received the audience choice award for best documentary, and was named one of “The best 8 films we saw at SXSW” by Rotten Tomatoes. Top critic John DeFore at The

Hollywood Reporter described the documentary as “affecting,” and described how, “TransMilitary introduces several outstanding trans service members whose peers and superiors are totally unfazed by their situation, knowing that being able to count on someone in the field is infinitely more important than what’s in his or her pants.”
These are just a few of the positive and well-received recent media representations of transgender people playing (or being) themselves. However, when it comes to big budget movies, most still fail to cast transgender people in transgender roles, and both film and TV still frequently repeat inaccurate, outdated tropes about transgender lives.

While P.T. Barnum once said, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity,” not everyone would agree. While most people know what “transgender” means, that doesn’t mean they encounter us on a routine basis. Eighty-seven percent of Americans know someone who is lesbian or gay, but only 16 percent know a transgender person.1116 Thus media portrayals of transgender people are likely to have a disproportionate effect on how cisgender people
perceive a transgender person when they meet them.

For example, if when a transgender person goes to a job interview, and the interviewer’s only exposure to transgender people is characters who are prostitutes, serial killers, or flaming human wreckage, this probably doesn’t work in the transgender applicant’s favor.

The characters “Brie” in Transamerica and “Rayon” in Dallas Buyers Club were both played by cisgender actors. While Brie was a lead character played by a cisgender woman, and Rayon was a side-kick character played by a cisgender man, they were similar in that neither was competent in their gender presentation, both were leading disastrous lives, and neither was the sort of person you would hire for more than an entry-level job, if at all. The characters themselves are essentially human wreckage, and played alternately for laughs and for pity. This chapter examines the most pernicious ways that transgender people are harmed by media representation. This includes an examination of “the pathetic tranny,” “the transsexual serial killer,” and “the trap” tropes about transgenderpeople. It also looks at how being played as a freaks and jokes who could never be loved by “real” people takes a devastating emotional toll. Finally, it discusses how to improve representation.

Brynn Tannehill is a leading trans activist and essayist, and has written for The New York Times, The Huffington Post, Bilerico, Slate, Salon, USA Today, The Advocate, LGBTQ Nation, The New Civil Rights Movement, as a blogger and featured columnist.

A leader in Gender Diversity books, Jessica Kingsley Publishers publishes informative guides for professionals, parents, children, teens, and the general reader. For more information on this title and others, visit www. jkp.com or call 215-622-1161. To preorder, visit Amazon.com.

The post Everything you ever wanted to know about Trans (but were afraid to ask) first appeared on Lesbian.com.

Nevada Army National Guard Sgt. Sam Hunt, an electrician with G Company, 2/238th General Support Aviation Battalion poses for a photo on the flight line at the Army Aviation Support Facility in Stead, Nev., May 12, 2017. Hunt is the first openly transgender soldiers of the Nevada National Guard.

FROM SHANNON MINTER
NCLR

This morning, the Supreme Court issued its first rulings in our challenges to the transgender military ban. The Court denied the Trump administration’s request to leapfrog the normal judicial process and hear the cases now. But it also lifted three of the four preliminary court orders preventing Trump from enforcing the ban while the cases continue in the lower courts.

While this is a rapidly evolving situation, here’s the immediate takeaway:

The Court will not hear the cases this term, which is good news. We don’t want the Court to rule on this important issue prematurely, before we have had a chance to build a strong record in the lower courts and present evidence showing that the ban is based on bias, not facts.

For now, the transgender military ban should remain blocked. The Court ruled only on three of the four injunctions in place, but until the government takes action to overturn the fourth injunction, the ban cannot yet be enforced.

Multiple federal courts have recognized that excluding qualified individuals simply because they are transgender is contrary to basic constitutional principles of equality and fairness. I am confident the courts will ultimately protect the integrity of our nation’s military and hold that transgender service members must be evaluated based on the same standards applied to all others, not barred from service based on a characteristic that has no relevance to their fitness to serve.

As a practical matter, of course, the Court’s apparent willingness to greenlight the ban while the cases proceed is a stinging loss for transgender people currently in the military because it strengthens the government’s position that it may be permitted to exclude people from serving. It also creates confusion.

But as we’ve said since we first sued Trump, this case is not just about transgender servicemembers. It’s part of a larger pattern of policies by Trump to deny basic rights to any LGBTQ person in any context, with implications far beyond the armed forces. The military is one of the largest employers in the nation. This ban is about employment discrimination, and as such it could have a ripple effect in every area of life, from immigration to family law to employment and many others.

We will continue to fight, and I will keep you posted as our cases are heard in the lower courts. This is a setback, but a temporary one, and we will not stop fighting until we defeat this harmful and demeaning ban.

Thank you for all you do to support NCLR and the LGBTQ community.

The post NCLR explains Supreme Court decision on transgender troops first appeared on Lesbian.com.

1. Do you have any phobias?
Oh yes! I’m terrified of the dark and even though I know that as a grown woman that’s insane, but I can’t help it! I’m also afraid of any water mass other than a nicely painted pool, or my bathtub, insects, with a dash of claustrophobia. Yes, you may laugh, but that’s how it is.

2. What song can you not get enough of right now?
I’m an old school girl so “The Winner takes it all” from ABBA and “Try Me” by Donna Summer never get old. Add a dash of “I’ll be seeing you” by Billie Holiday and we’re good!

3. Which celebrity would render you totally star struck if you were to meet him/her?
If I opened a door and Maggie Smith was standing there, I would probably giggle like a school girl, or Meryl, or OPRAH!

4. What would be your best piece of relationship advice?
Well, my advice may not bring happiness, but it brings truth: go for what you need. Sometimes you need a warm body and sometimes you need respect. Know which one is more important to you at that moment and go after that. Life doesn’t have room for regret, so if you do something that doesn’t work for you, learn from it and don’t do it again. That is what wisdom is. But don’t be too wise, because then you won’t have any fun. Balance wins in the end.

5. If you could wake up tomorrow with one talent or skill you don’t presently have, what would you want that to be?
If I could have one skill tomorrow, it would be to have a photographic memory. If I could have a talent, real or not, it would be the ability to affect people’s thoughts by looking at them. I would really enjoy that trait. Well, you didn’t say it had to be real!

Currently, Pooya stars in the new web series, “Grosse Misconduct.”

The post Fast 5 with Pooya Mohseni first appeared on Lesbian.com.