Julie, my GF, and I watched Bryant Gumbel interview 2 transwomen on his Real Sports program this evening. We both thought it was very well done. It intelligently and sensitively portrayed the struggle that we all face while coming to terms publicly with our true selves.
Bryant interviewed two sports writers who successfully transitioned genders, one from NYC and one from Chicago whom we both have met. The third news columnist, Kristina Penner, had recently taken her own life after unsuccessfully trying to detransition. Bryant Gumbel and his staff did a great job of researching the topic, and were very familiar with all of the proper terminology. No discussion about bathrooms,locker rooms or missing anatomical parts.
Ms. Penner's own words were very well crafted into the piece, where the editors used audio recordings from an NPR radio program from a couple of years ago. Bryant Gumbel quoted the statistic of 1/3 TG/TS people taking their own lives either trying to beat off the gender dissonance or our own family and professional critics who make our lives so difficult. Sadly so, he reported, this statistic proved true in this group of three sports writing colleagues.
We plan on sending a note along to HBO, it's producers and Mr. Gumbel for an excellent piece of video. This 15-20 minutes of quality airtime did much to break down the walls of misunderstanding many have about the lives of transgendered people.
Bravo!
