Hollywood hits shed light on transgender issues
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(1999), A young man is looking excitedly at his face in the mirror. “Shorter, shorter here,” he tells the guy who is cutting his hair.
The camera zooms out and frames Brandon, a strong-jawed skinny boy in a cowboy shirt.
The audience later learns that Brandon’s real name is Teena Brandon, a transgender boy from Lincoln, Nebraska, whose story inspired this Oscar-winning movie.
Teena Brandon was 21 when she was murdered on December 31, 1993, in Humboldt, Nebraska - an unknown town in the ultra-conservative American Midwest in which lesbians are still called dykes and homosexuality is often regarded as a sin.
The success of the movie helped draw attention to the scores of transgender people who are killed every year because of their gender identity, and who are commemorated on Nov. 20 during the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance .
By becoming a Hollywood hit, “Boys Don’t Cry” sparked an interest in the general public which allowed transgender-themed movies to reach a mainstream audience.
Source: TrustLaw (blog)