On Monday, June 22 the National Sexuality Resource Center sponsored a panel discussion of the film Still Black:A Portrait of Black Transmen after the film’s Frameline debut as a part of the NSRC’s Summer Institute on Race, Gender, and Sexuality. Panelists included JayR Rosemon from Dimensions Clinic; Zion Johnson founding member of the Lou Sullivan Society; Shawn Demmons, an MPH Candidate San Francisco State University and a Point Foundation Scholar; and Amy Sueyoshi, Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies and Sexuality Studies at San Francisco State University.
Amy Sueyoshi agreed to share her comments from that panel in my blog. Her comments are a valuable resource for sexuality educators interested using Still Black in the classroom as a tool for teaching about sexuality, gender, and race.
A frame from the documentary Still Black
Kortney Ryan Zeigler has put together an astute documentary titled Still Black profiling the hearts and souls of six African American transmen. They come largely from the Midwest and represent a diversity of gay, straight, bi, and queer sexualities as well as religious and secular lifestyles. The film most obviously fights against stereotypes of African American male sexuality and brings increased visibility to Black FTMs (female-to-male transsexuals). Still Black, however, makes additional interventions important to how we think about race, gender, and sexuality today. As a faculty member at San Francisco State University teaching at the intersections of gender, sexuality, and race, I found at least six important messages that Ziegler conveys.
1) Even as they face difficulties, African American transmen find support within their families. This is notable in the face of widespread beliefs pumped out by the white mainstream media that people of color are more homophobic and transphobic than whites.2) The church plays a critical and sustaining role for African American trans people. This is particularly important because it underscores how Christianity is in fact compatible with being queer despite messages of incompatibility from the Christian Right. 3) Still Black addresses how trans men of color find models of masculinity within their families and construct ways of being that are different from dominant stereotypes and regimes of appropriate manhood. This transmasculine reality diverges sharply from views of non-trans people who imagine trans people as creating predictable gendered identities that reinforce gender oppression.4) The film explicitly gives credit to the women’s community as nurturing and bringing up FTMs even as they felt no longer a part of the lesbian community. This transnarrative of FTMs in the lesbian community is vastly different from other FTM documentaries (largely white) that mercilessly bash the lesbian community for transphobia.5) African American transmen are finding their way. Usually when we see the handful of documentaries on TG (transgender) or TS (transexual) people of color, they appear starkly unhappy. They are barely holding it together, usually homeless, jobless, or abandoned by friends, families and lovers. They are angry if not depressed to the point of incapacitation. They frequently end up dying of AIDS or getting killed in a hate crime. If we are not dumbfounded and moved by their apparently heroic fortitude to survive and outraged by the transphobia they face, we dislike them because of their sexism or their archaic essentialist views of gender. Yet unlike typical depictions of trans people of color, Kylar, Ethan, Carl, Jay, Louis, and Rashad all seemed relatively healthy and likeable, friends with whom you might rent a movie or organize along a queer cause.6) Finally, for trans people Still Black offers thoughtful insights on managing masculinity, community, religion, and relationships by both validating people’s day to day experiences and providing a guiding light for those considering or still early in their transition.
Most narratives on race focus on the obstacles that people of color face and highlight excruciating suffering and pain. So ubiquitously do they appear, they have perhaps have become the “post civil rights” minstrel show for white liberals who now use racialized bodies to enact how-racist-we-still-are.
Truth is people of color have always known that life is never fair. Though we do not welcome discrimination, we are not surprised when it rears its ugly head. For those of us who daily deal with the “thousand little cuts” that racism brings, a story solely on the ravages of white supremacy and privilege only reminds us of the realities we must continually brush off or force ourselves to forget. It is neither enlightening nor illuminating of an alternate reality. Many times, films that resonated closely to my own suffering left me irrepressibly depressed rather than validated. The fewer number of narratives that additionally address renewal and survival may be the more productive experience for those more trampled upon.
In Still Black, Ziegler addresses racism but goes on to shed a different light on how we find our way – a lived reality and a remarkable phenomena of renewal that all of us undergo as we wade through hetoronormativity, patriarchy, and white supremacy. More importantly, Still Black spoke honestly about internalized homophobia, racism, as well as misogyny in a productive manner that moved towards decreasing if not eliminating hate within our own communities.
On a personal level, the film struck a chord within me that I would usually only reveal in conversations with close friends. First, stories of coming out and negotiating family were not so different from my own and likely others who can not so easily able abandon their families because of the way racism and xenophobia alienates people of color in the U.S. Thus we accept our parents even if they are not waving rainbow flags as part of PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) contingent at Pride. We do not sign our families off since they still make inappropriate comments. We wait patiently for them to come around or just accept them for however far they can come.
Second, as a rather mundane serial monogamist, I saw in these men astute lessons on how to be a respectful partner: to be both self-conscious and open as to how you might irritate your lover; to be humble about yourself even as you love yourself; and finally to make an honest commitment to making things work even in the worst of times.
Third, as the lover of a trans man of color I was moved by the deep sincerity and commitment of these men to be better people. These avowals I often hear from own lover despite the ways racism, xenophobia, and transphobia in his professional and personal life have hardened him. It is not necessarily a trans man of color trait to be self-reflective and thoughtful, but a “charmed” life - one that is rife with privileges not usually accessible to trans men of color - often times allows people to progress through life without ever taking a hard look at themselves.
Ultimately, this is more than just a film that illuminates African American trans realities or offers support to Black FTMs. It is a documentary that also speaks to the struggles of people of color as well as anyone looking for the self-confidence to love oneself and others with integrity and respect. In conclusion, what does race bring to the trans narrative? Still Black is a film about generosity towards oneself as well as others in an effort to build rather than break bridges even in the face of great adversity.
