I can't even tell you how many times
I've been in public space,
particularly early in my transition,
when I would walk into a subway car
and people would just burst into laughter.
And I think people are-- have been trained
to have that reaction.
According to a study from GLAAD,
80% of Americans
don't actually personally know someone
who is transgender.
So most of the information
that Americans get
about who transgender people are,
what our lives are and are about
comes from the media.
We've been around
since there was, uh, footage.
You just have to look for us.
Can we all just talk about D.W. Griffith
for a minute?
Not only is he incredibly racist,
but he turned gender-nonconforming people
into the joke.
It's like you can't have
queer trans people and Blackness
in the same space at the same time.
So what does that say
about my queer trans Black ass?
I've died so many times,
I can't even count, on camera.
I've been a prostitute... Prostitute 1,
Prostitute 2, Call Girl, Hooker. [laughs]
The Crying Game created a ripple effect.
You are a trans person who existed
made people physically ill
was the way which my favorite movie
as a child ended.
[Yance] There are lots of ugly things
about our history,
but I think we have to know them.
[protester] I have been beaten.
I have been thrown in jail
for gay liberation.
And you all treat me this way?
[Jen] There is a one-word solution
to almost all the problems in trans media.
We just need more.
[upbeat inspirational music plays]
And that way,
the occasional clumsy representation
wouldn't matter as much
because it wouldn't be all that there is.
[Angelica] You see a fierceness
that's coming up now.
That's because
we ain't got nothing to lose.
[inaudible]
These are my sisters up here,
but the struggle is real.
[Laverne] The ways in which trans people
have been represented
have suggested that we're mentally ill,
that we don't exist.
And yet here we are,
and we've always been here.
