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In my humble opinion, a very well handled and TRUE depiction of how Transsexuals are treated by others AND by the law itself. Frightening, frustrating, and maddening... but true.
Cathy
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and totally bogus.
I don't know of anyone who would wear tight jeans to a party like "cheryl" without either a gaff or serious tucking. Judging the time frame the grab would have found nothing and she wouldn't have been exposed to boyfriend.
The rest of it the "finding out" aside from bogus blood test, is somewhat true in extreme cases but not all.
For real!
This brought me to tears... and rage and...that is the way it is. The Law can only deal with the Law and until those of us who are so horribly at risk can force the system that makes those laws to deal with the messy, confusing complexities of who we are, stories like this will continue to happen. Just as portrayed.
Yes, jail and prison for trans folk (women especially) is horrible. All of the bad things you have heard about, happen, repeatedly.
I have been there, on both sides and the only thing that stopped it from being me on that gurney is that repeated beatings at home and bullying in the world turned me vicious and violent, young so when some one tried, I nearly killed him even though he was much bigger. Word went out,"Don't f*** with that little one, she's crazy and she will kill you.). So I did my 2 years in relative peace but it was still horrible.
It is a hard truth in this film but it must be told. I think it was Huey Newton of the Panthers who said,"Not everything that is faced can get changed, but nothing gets changed until it is faced.
Wow...
When was this first on? Because my parents were watching an L&O when I was headed to my friends party on Saturday when they were being I felt overly nosy about where I was going.
It felt like they didn't think they could trust me to take care of myself...
In a way while I can feel for Cheryl in the story I do have to say I kinda also feel she should have been smarter to begin with.
We learn very quickly just what works for us and what doesn't. And in her case, obviously being tougher didn't work and so she should have turned to getting smarter. Being tougher was too unpredictable for me too, so that's what I did, got smarter.
Abigail Drew.
Anger doesn't completely express my......
Feelings concerning that L&O episode, but it's a start. It seems most people, even in this day & age still don't get it! What it means to be transgendered. Why does it take Cheryl getting the crap beat out of her, physically & sexually, for the state authorities to figure out putting her in the mens lockup might not be a good idea! Grrrrrr...........
Staying Safe
I was going to stand down on this one, but I just want to point out a few things. First, you do not go out with a guy without telling him your status very soon after you meet him. Even if you are post op, you tell.
Second, a smart girl just does not do wild drinking parties, even if you are a genetic woman. Anyone who thinks that is normal conduct is going to get hurt.
Gwendolyn
Don't read this comment
I suppose you could call this an episode of Law & Order: Victim's Special Unit.
It's an interesting episode
It's horrific certainly, but in terms of story design, it's supposed to be horrific, a tragedy.
In some ways, it's a good story, because the transgendered person is presented sympathetically. I think that's the point of the story, to raise awareness of what being transgendered (or being an actual transitioning transexual) really means among those who have clue zero about the whole subject. They even made a point about explaining about the actual physiological brain differences.
While Katherine Moenning is certainly androgynous looking, my understanding is that she's a GG. It would be nice if they'd done a bit of work and found a real TG person to play the role. I don't know, I guess that's it's own kettle of fish, and mainstream media likes pretty people.
Certainly Cheryl makes a lot of stupid mistakes, but ... people do. The idea of the boyfriend committing suicide over the issue ... seems a bit extreme. Cheryl should have had an Endocrinologist, a Psychiatrist, and a support group. But it's a story meant to play out in 40+ minutes on mainstream TV, so ... she has to make some stupid mistakes, and some details get left by the wayside.
I don't know, I have mixed feelings about it. It's painful to watch.