Being Seen

On the Trans Day of Visibility , and given that trans rights has lately become one of the bleeding edges of the culture wars, I thought it would also be good to highlight some stuff I've enjoyed recently that is inclusive and (largely) positive, particularly for young people who are most likely to suffer from the latest drummed up moral panic.  

SAP

With perfect timing, Mae Martin is now streaming on Netflix with SAP, their new stand-up show and I watched it last night.  I loved their work in Feel Good and Dope, and this new sharing of their personal snow globe (you'll need to watch it to understand) was funny, thought-provoking and life affirming.   They lay their heart out open on the stage and have a good dig through it.  Although their life journey bears little resemblance to mine, Mae managed to take me with them every step of the way.  I loved the understated-ness of the structure and delivery despite the full forest on stage and the little vignettes that bookend the performance.  

Mae is also a competitor on the new series of Taskmaster by the way, and I have a small personal wager that they may be the ultimate winner.

Sharing Spaces

Daniel Radcliffe continues to give his support to the trans community with this series on Youtube listening to the voices of young trans people.  It's supported by the Trevor Project and it's great to actually hear people talking about their own experiences rather than others talking about or for them.   This is a lovely conversation about having language to use, and how to articulate that you know who you are. There's also some other really good documentaries on there, if you can get over the amount of American-ness, again from the Trevor Project , a charity which focuses on LGBTQ+ suicide prevention and crisis intervention.  

Heartstopper

I have raved about this Netflix series elsewhere, but let's stop for a moment again to enjoy Elle (Yasmin Finney),  a trans girl just living her life, being a teenager with all of the usual challenges.  The series is really aimed at young teens but anyone with a heart at whatever age should love this too.  Worth saying that the source materials, the Heartstopper graphic novels by Alice Oseman, are also highly recommended for this too and they are also available online free here  as well as on real paper.   

Bizarrely for such an innocent and wholesome depiction of young love, these books have been caught up in the ludicrous bans currently hitting school libraries in the US. I hope that the authorities there come to their senses soon.

I Was Born For This

This YA novel is also by Alice Oseman and has a trans man as one of the main ensemble cast of characters,  again just living their life.  What I love is that Oseman's characters are just people who happen to be trans, or Black, or muslim or any variation of gender or orientation or facet of humanity, and those facts are never the main challenge of the story although they are not glossed over either.  I hope one day the real world is like that too.

Gender Queer: A Memoir

Maia Kobabe's emotional journey towards acceptance as non-binary and asexual, this book apparently started life as an attempt to explain to friends and family, but I found it really enlightening and engaging.  The graphic novel form makes it easy to cover considerable emotional and narrative ground really quickly and so I demolished this in no time then sat and had a good long time to process afterwards.  

Everybody's talking about Jamie

As drag as an art form seems to have found itself caught up somehow with the shutting down of trans rights, it felt good to include this lovely uplifting musical about a boy who wants to be a drag queen.   Currently available on Prime 

Let's hope we don't need these 'awareness days' for much longer!