Claire Green (left) is featured in “Young, Trans and Looking for Love” — Image via Barcroft TV/BBC 3
Claire Green is moving from Virginia’s gorgeous Blue Ridge mountains to Richmond, the state capital, because she wants to “make a future for myself…move on from the past.”
Green is a transgender YouTuber who has posted a number of videos about her transitional experience. This week, she’s making a much bigger public splash in a new Barcroft/BBC documentary, Young, Trans and Looking for Love. A teaser shows Claire with her friend Zoe, donning a bikini at the beach and meeting a couple of guys. The young men are initially interested, but then treat the women with “silence” after their transgender status is revealed.
“In a lot of ways,” Green says, “I don’t like telling a guy, because, once I tell him, it’s like, all respect goes out the window. Straight guys just can’t get over you having the male…parts.” Metro UK quotes Green as saying she’s “never had an actual relationship.”
Green has legally changed her name and had hormone and laser hair treatments. However, she is now bothered by unpleasant encounters with people in her home community. “Someone yelled across the [gas station] parking lot, ‘Yo, like that’s a dude….’ And it’s just situations like that, that I run into, because people know me,” she added.
High school acquaintances, for example, have a difficult time addressing Claire as the woman she is now, rather than the male classmate they grew up with. “[I] run into so many people who are like — automatically, if I haven’t seen them for a while — ‘Hi, Dylan…’ or ‘he, him….’ And I will have to put them in their place.”
Claire recognizes that others may experience difficulty in changing their language, but she is hurt by their mistakes. It makes her feel as though all the work she has undertaken to transition has been undone by other people’s feelings of awkwardness or laziness.
“I understand that we knew each other for so long. And you knew me as this way before, for so long,” she says. “But I feel like, out of respect — because trans people go through so much — that that is the one thing you should do for a trans person: Call them by the right pronouns. Call them by the name they chose.”
Young, Trans and Looking for Love begins airing on BBC3 at 9pm, Monday, November 23, 2015. The program will also features Arin Andrews and Katie Rain Hill, two transgender teenagers, who previously shared their story of love on 20/20.
A transgender athlete in California won two golds and a silver medal at the CIF State Track & Field Championships last weekend, but officially "tied" with other athletes due to a specialized scoring system instituted just ahead of the state meet.
AB Hernandez, a transgender girl who is a junior at Jurupa Valley High School in Riverside, California, placed first in the girls' high jump and triple jump competitions, and second in the girls' long jump competition.
Hernandez's participation sparked controversy and staunch opposition from some parents and bystanders, especially after President Donald Trump threatened to permanently withhold federal money from California if transgender athletes -- specifically Hernandez, although he did not refer to her by name -- were allowed to compete in female events.
Recently released data from a national survey of transgender and nonbinary individuals reveals that detransitioning is not as common as opponents of transgender rights assert, and that the overwhelming reason for detransitioning is rooted in social stigma and lack of support.
Recently released data from a national survey of transgender and nonbinary individuals finds that detransitioning is far less common than anti-trans activists claim. When it does happen, it’s largely due to external pressures like stigma and lack of support, not regret over transitioning.
In another swipe at the transgender community, the national monument honoring what is widely seen as the seminal event of the modern LGBTQ rights movement has erased all mention of transgender and queer people.
Each June, the Stonewall National Monument in New York City typically decorates the fence surrounding Christopher Park -- the small park adjacent to the historic Stonewall Inn and part of the official monument -- with various Pride flags.
In past years, the display has featured a mix of flags -- the familiar six-stripe rainbow Pride flag, the blue, pink, and white transgender Pride flag, and the "Progress" flag, which adds stripes for Black and brown communities and a chevron design incorporating transgender and intersex Pride colors.
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.