Transhood: An incredibly important HBO documentary
Transhood on HBO Max is an incredibly emotional, incredibly important documentary that follows four kids on their transgender journeys. The United States, and other places around the world as well, are struggling right now to understand the transgender experience, especially for the younger folks. If there is one message that you should take from Transhood, it’s that trans lives matter, and our trans kids need our support.
This documentary is bound to be controversial (even though it shouldn’t be). Some of the kids featured are very young. With the current political discourse circulating trans youth, some aspects of this may make some folks a little uncomfortable. However, media like this is vitally important to the trans cause. In order for it to get better for our trans folks, people need to wade in the uncomfortable waters for a while and work through their biases.
Grab a box of tissues because you’re going to need them. We recommend grabbing your emotional support doggo or catto if you have one, or maybe just a blankey if you don’t. Transhood is set over the span of several years and it left us deep in our feels. We hope it does the same for you.
Lenna
Lenna started her social transition when she was eleven. When Transhood beings, she is fifteen and taking hormone blockers. Lenna started telling her parents around the age of seven that she was a girl, not a boy. Although her parents are completely supportive of the idea now, it took Lenna’s dad a hot minute to understand his child’s needs. Mom, apparently, was on board much faster.
Lenna’s father is in the documentary though and it’s very clear that he is now her biggest champion. He takes her shopping for bikinis, drives her on dates with boys, and is there for all her emotional needs.
Lenna has a boyfriend. A straight guy from her school that knows that Lenna is trans. Lenna mentions that it’s really important for her self esteem to be accepted and loved by a straight man, and she feels like this would go a long way in validating how she feels about herself.
As Transhood continues and Lenna gets older, her body dysmorphia becomes more and more pronounced. Lenna makes it clear that she isn’t ever going to feel at home in her body unless she has full gender reassignment surgery. So, her family, being the rockstar supports that they are, help her research and learn about this process.
Something that we learned as we journeyed through this with Lenna is that it’s really very expensive. Around $35,000 USD kind of expensive to be exact. Lenna seems to come from a family that can afford to pay that for her, but many trans folks in the US and around the world definitely can’t pay for something like that. We can’t even imagine the struggle that folks in this category feel on a daily basis.
Lenna breaks up with her boyfriend not too long before she was slated for her surgery. Brian confessed that he was dating Lenna as a cover because he was struggling with his own sexuality. Feeling betrayed, Lenna ended things with him. She recovers quickly enough from the loss and flies to San Francisco for her surgery.
When Lenna wakes up from the operation, she whispers into her mother’s ear “I’m free.” *insert violent sobbing here*
Phoenix
When the documentary begins, Phoenix is four. Her parents explain that from a really young age, she never wanted to wear boys clothes, never wanted to cut her hair. At the time the documentary opens, Phoenix is calling herself a boygirl and her parents are running with it, giving Phoenix the chance to explore who she is, despite her incredibly young age.
Phoenix tells the camera “I like being a girl because I get to wear dresses and paint my nails.”
Phoenix’s grandparents, especially on her dad’s side, are not supportive of her parents’ decision to let her explore her gender identity at this age. The relationship between Phoenix’s parents is tried and tested through the years the documentary is filmed. Although neither of them expressly say that their issues are related to Phoenix being tansgender, it is certainly alluded to.
Phoenix parents get a divorce when Phoenix is five. Phoenix, her siblings and her mom move in with her mother’s parents and start life anew. Phoenix’s mom enrolls all the kids in public school (they were homeschooled prior to this) and Phoenix makes a drastic change.
After starting school, Phoenix decides that they don’t want to be a girl anymore and starts wearing boys clothes and engaging in boy-like activities. He starts referring to himself with he/him pronouns.
Phoenix’s mom says she isn’t sure if it’s the influence of her father – a strong male role model in the home – that caused the change in Phoenix. She alludes to the idea that Phoenix’s dad was not a “good” enough male role model and this may have been the cause of Phoenix’s gender confusion.
Phoenix’s mom, who was Phoenix’s biggest support when they wanted to be a girl, speaks out against the trans community, claiming that kids can’t be trans. She also labels transgenderism as a mental disorder.
Phoenix’s story, which filled us with so much hope and pride in its beginning stages, takes a nasty turn so just be wary of this, folks. We may have actually thrown something at the television when Phoenix’s mother was spouting anti-trans hate messages at the end of her story.
Avery
When Transhood opens, Avery is 7. Avery is being homeschooled because when she started dressing like a girl, she found herself on the receiving end of quite a lot of bullying at school.
When Avery told her parents that she was a girl, her parents did everything they could to understand and support their child. Her parents engage in all kinds of activism on her behalf and Avery becomes somewhat of a trans child celebrity. She appears on the cover of National Geographic in an edition that was showcasing nine-year-olds around the world.
Her face is thrust into the spotlight and Avery and her family find themselves at the center of a lot of anti-trans rhetorical and hate speech online and in public spaces. Avery becomes really uncomfortable with the attention.
Avery is also given the opportunity to pen her own picture book about being trans. She and her mom go on book tours, she ends up in Washington D.C. as the face of activist campaigns, but Avery continues to struggle with the spotlight.
It all came to a head when the Pulse Nightclub shooting occurred in Orlando. Avery was supposed to appear on a float during Orlando Pride which happened really soon after the tragedy, and everyone is concerned about Avery’s safety. Avery’s parents talk to a lot of people about how to keep her safe during that event, including the FBI, but Avery decides she doesn’t want to go.
“I don’t want to die,” she says.
Although she is so young, Avery understands fully the political issues that she is facing as a young, trans kid in America. She knows she isn’t safe. She knows she has a whole life of struggle ahead of her, just for living her life as her authentic self. If that’s not the very definition of tragic, then we don’t know what is.
Jay
When Transhood starts, Jay is in middle school. He’s got a girlfriend who doesn’t know he is trans. Jay’s mom said that they had moved towns, and when they moved towns, Jay started telling everyone at his new school that he was a boy. His mom didn’t know he was doing this, but when she learned that he was, she knew that this wasn’t some “phase” he was experiencing, and he meant business.
So mom jumped on board and started doing what she could for her kid. She took him to doctors, concerned about how to navigate the complexities of puberty since Jay didn’t have the right hormones running through his body that would allow him to develop as a boy. Medical care for transgender folks is expensive, and Jay’s mom explains that she ran into lots of issues with insurance companies.
When Jay’s girlfriend finds out that he is trans, she breaks up with Jay because her mom won’t let her see him anymore. Jay is angry, because Jay’s mom was the one that told Mildred’s mother that Jay is trans.
Often, Jay’s mom felt like she just couldn’t do what her kid needed her to, and her journey is just as emotional as Jay’s. Half way through the documentary, Jay’s mom meets a woman that she falls madly in love with (unexpectedly, according to her). And it actually changes Jay’s life in more ways than one.
Jay’s mom marries Lainey. Not only does Jay get a second mom, but Lainey’s insurance will cover all of Jay’s medical needs. Jay will be able to get the hormones he needs and any other treatment that is necessary along the way.
When he is sixteen, Jay starts hormone treatment and the changes in his development are incredible. By the time Jay’s story comes to an end, he is going to prom, graduating high school, and has fully transitioned to a man. He decides that he isn’t sure if he is going to tell his friends and roommates at college that he is trans. Like Avery, Jay is aware of the stigma that comes attached to his identity and he isn’t sure how he wants to navigate that as he steps out into the real world.
Transhood is important because trans people are here, and they’re not going anywhere. It’s important because it highlights the struggles that our trans community faces on a daily basis – struggles that they shouldn’t have to endure. This documentary depicts these individuals exactly as they are – humans, just like you, me, or the person you live next door to. They feel things, they need healthcare, and they want the same things that everyone else does: to love, and be loved in return.
If you’ve ever found yourself wondering how someone can know from such a young age that they aren’t actually born in the right body, that they don’t want to be the gender they were assigned at birth, then you need to watch this documentary. Lenna’s unwavering conviction, Avery’s desperation to just live her life, and Jay’s sheer joy that comes with his access to the healthcare he needs should tell you everything you need to know about trans kids.
Trans rights are human rights, trans kids are human kids, and that’s all there is to say about that.
Transhood is available to stream now on HBO Max. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for all queer stuff!
