Vor Transsexuellen Wird Gewarnt (Transexual Menace)

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Available Summary:

Transexual Menace takes its title from the name of "the most exciting political action group in the USA"; transgendered people who are defining themselves, demanding their legal rights, and fighting for medical care and against job discrimination. Considered by Von Praunheim to be the “most fascinating [project] in my long life as a filmmaker,” Transexual Menace is a sensitive and carefully crafted portrait that deals with issues openly and honestly. “I was able to earn the trust of many who are often reluctant to be interviewed. Courageous people talked to me, who transitioned in such problematic professions as law enforcement and firefighting.” Transexual Menace gives viewers remarkable insight into the home and work lives of transsexuals from many cultures and countries, including female-to-male transsexuals and those with families and children.

-Video Data Bank.

Jack's Summary:

I highly recommend this documentary as a snapshot of trans and gender-diverse history and advocacy, and the progress made by transsexual men, women, and gender-variant people in the past.

One trans male interviewee discusses the complexity of remaining with the same partner for nine years, initially as a pair of lesbians, then a "straight" couple when he transitioned, then as a gay male couple when his partner transitioned. Other trans men discuss their surgical and hormonal transitions, their relationships, their families, and their professional lives.

Leslie Feinberg, in hir interview, is asked by the interviewer whether he/him/his or she/her/hers pronouns are preferred. Feinberg responds, "I'm a person who's more complex than the two pronouns that exist, and I don't want to have to simplify myself to fit into one or the other," going on to explain the experiences of people who now largely fit within the non-binary umbrella.

Eva Love, a German trans woman, discusses her relationship with a trans man, saying, "I don't have to stress about, oh my god, is he going to find out? And he doesn't have to stress about me finding out. There are so many things that you can do, sexually... I don't go by his genitals, y'know what I'm saying? I go by what he presents to me."

An interviewee I was particularly struck by was West African trans woman Mayomi Rifiou, who discusses the attempts to "fix" her and the pressure to marry a woman, before she fled to the U.S.A. Kim Ono, a trans woman from Hawaii, talks about her accepting father and a supportive counsellor at her all-male Catholic high school, both of whom encouraged her to be her true self.

The documentary is narrated in German, with the interviews being primarily in English.

WARNINGS: References to anti-trans attitudes, hate crimes, murder, conversion therapy, professional discrimination, and suicidal ideation. Sexual themes and nudity. Discussion and non-explicit re-enactment of sex work. Reclaimed slurs. Use of the term "hermaphrodite" by someone who is not intersex.