Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Growing Up Trans in Arkansas: Friends Film, a Story of Hope
Posted by Kelli Busey at 7:06 AM
http://planetransgender.blogspot.com/2012/10/growing-up-trans-in-arkansas-friends.htmlAli and Joesph, a gay High School student both live in rural deep south America. Both have bravely come out and are raising funds for a movie called Friend Film , two unique stories of growing up in small town America. This being a transgender blog I wanted to focus on Ali and was graciously granted this interview by her.
When I and my contemporaries were youth it was long before the Internet. I had heard of a story of a far off Oz like land where a "man had become a woman" but to even consider myself as special, would have been thought ridiculous not just by my family who called me a ->-bleeped-<-, but to myself. I had came to believe what I was hearing all those years, that I was of little value. Ali's story and those of us who grew up decades before are amazingly similar.
Kelli: Ali, you grew up in the Internet age. Where you allowed to visit trans friendly web sites? If so what was it like living fully aware of your gender yet being denied your right to express it?
Ali: "Well, honestly, I never really got on the Internet much growing up. When I did, it was playing computer games. I didn't start getting on the Internet until I was in 9th grade. And even then I didn't really go to trans friendly websites because I wasn't really aware of them."
