CALL TO ACTION TO ALL TRANS PEOPLE AND ALLIES: Attend THE GENDERCATOR screening and hold the gay and lesbian community accountable! On Saturday, July 21st, Outfest at 6:00pm, at the Village at Ed Gould Plaza. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by Riku Matsuda. The address for the Village is: 1125 N. McCadden Place Los Angeles, CA 90038
CALL TO ACTION TO ALL TRANS PEOPLE AND ALLIES: Attend THE GENDERCATOR
screening and hold the gay and lesbian community accountable!
On Saturday, July 21st, Outfest will screen THE GENDERCATOR, a film that has
been widely criticized as being highly transphobic. We, concerned members of
the trans community, call on all transpeople and trans-allies to attend the
screening and make their voices heard!
Background:
THE GENDERCATOR is a story of a hypothetical future where all people are
given the choice of changing gender, but must pick one of two rigid binary
norms. The director of the film herself had this to say about the film
"Things are getting very strange for women these days. More and more often
we see young heterosexual women carving their bodies into porno Barbie dolls
and lesbian women altering themselves into transmen. Our distorted cultural
norms are making women feel compelled to use medical advances to change
themselves, instead of working to change the world. This is one story,
showing one possible scary future. I am hopeful that this story will foster
discussion about female body modification and medical ethics."
Outfest's controversial screening of THE GENDERCATOR follows a string of
controversies around screenings of THE GENDERCATOR at other gay and lesbian
film festivals. San Francisco's Frameline chose to remove the film from
their festival while New York's New Festival faced strong criticism but
chose to go forward with the screening. Outfest, upon hearing about
controversies at other festivals, removed mentions of THE GENDERCATOR from
all its printed and online publications, but did not remove it from its film
festival. Now, Outfest has chosen to go forward with screening this film,
while giving almost no notice to the transgender community.
We feel this film and Outfest's decision to screen it raise fundamental
questions about our LGBT communities:
- Why do stories that perpetuate transphobia, racism, sexism, and other
oppresive dynamics continue to get told in the queer community?
- Why are transpeople's personal decisions continually critiqued by the gay
and lesbian community as being reactionary, patriarchal, and unfeminist?
- Why are transpeople's stories silenced, while transphobic films are given
a platform out of fear of "censorship"?
- Why do LGBT institutions continue to prioritize gay and lesbian interests
over the needs of the trans-people and other marginalized communities?
Now it's your turn to tell Outfest and the gay and lesbian community that
trans-people demand answers!
THE GENDERCATOR screening will take place ****Saturday, July 21st ** at
6:00pm, at the Village at Ed Gould Plaza. The screening will be followed by
a panel discussion moderated by Riku Matsuda. The address for the Village
is:
1125 N. McCadden Place
Los Angeles, CA 90038
Please arrive early so that we can be ready and organized.
We look forward to seeing everyone on the 21st!
Note: If you can't make the screening, you can still give input to Outfest
by calling them at (213) 480-7088 or e-mailing them at outfest@outfest.org.