Yesterday was Transgender Day of Visibility, which is excellent timing, as I have been thinking a lot lately about gender. Why am I a man? What would it be like to be a woman? What if I were born a man but felt I was supposed to be a woman? Don’t get me wrong; I have no desire to transition. However, in my desire to develop greater empathy for others, I have tried to imagine the struggles that transgender people might be facing. To me, transgender people are courageous, resilient, and beautiful souls. So why are state and federal governments so concerned with this small portion of the population that they feel compelled to legislate against it?

So far in 2025, 806 bills have been introduced at the state level in 49 states, with 125 bills in Texas alone. Nationwide, 41 of those state-level bills have passed, and 722 bills remain active. At the federal level, 88 bills have been introduced. These state and federal bills would affect almost all aspects of a transgender person’s life, including:

• Education: denying students pronoun autonomy, forcibly outing trans students to parents, and banning gender identity education.
• Healthcare: Banning gender-affirming care and limiting insurance coverage.
• Sports: Banning transgender participation consistent with their gender identity (although I admit there might be some legitimacy here).
• Bathrooms: Restricting access to public facilities.
• Performances: Targeting gender non-conforming events such as plays.
• Birth certificates: Prohibiting gender changes.
• Civil rights: Denying fundamental civil rights to transgender people.
• Military: Excluding all transgender people from military service.

And my favorite, the Texas bill, making it a felony if a person “knowingly makes a false or misleading verbal or written statement” by identifying their sex assigned at birth incorrectly to a governmental entity or their employer. The offense would be punishable by up to two years in jail and a fine of up to $10,000.

Why are our governments spending so much time and energy to “protect” us against so few? Transgender people are not out to rape your spouse; they are not pedophiles; they are not trying to convince your sons and daughters to change their sex; they are not criminals. They merely want to live their lives authentically without interference from others.  

According to the World Population Review, transgender people make up only about one-half of one percent of the US population, or approximately one million three hundred thirty thousand persons. I suppose that is why, for most of my life, I haven’t known anyone transgender. Oh, I was aware of people like Amy Schneider from Jeopardy and listened to several transgender people on podcasts. But then, last December, I met Leo. He is a transgender young man living with my niece after being bullied at his former school. Leo confirmed what I have always believed: transgender people are people, too! I found nothing evil, scary, or even unusual about Leo. He was just a young man wanting to live an authentic life.

My first serious thoughts about transgender people occurred a couple of years ago as I read This Is How It Always Is, by Laurie Frankel, about a boy who believes he is supposed to be a girl. It’s fictional, but I think there is much truth in its pages as the author is a parent of a transgender boy. It’s more about how the family deals with the situation than a boy wanting to be a girl. And who is better equipped to deal with this issue? The parents or the government? I will put my trust in the parents almost every time. As Ms. Frankel stated in an NPR interview:

“I think that putting all of your faith in the decision-making powers of your small children [or the government] is probably not the best way forward for anyone. In the book, what happens is that they feel their way through, and I think that that’s what all of us do in parenting in general. You make a judgment call, and you take your best guess, and you take a shot, and you hope for the best. And if it works, that’s wonderful; and if it doesn’t, then you modify. That’s what parenting is, is figuring out that balance between letting your kids be who they are and protecting them from the world they have to live in.”

Then I read “Mad Honey,” co-authored by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan, who is a transgender woman. Here is one of my favorite quotes from Mad Honey (the narrator is a transgender woman):

“I’m not going to be a victim, ever again. I’m going to live my life with power, and fierceness, and with love.

“To be honest about it, I don’t actually have a whole theory about who I am or whether I get to live my life as myself. Other women don’t have to come up with a reason why they exist. Why is it necessary for me to justify the fact that I’m here upon this earth, to explain and defend the things I have known in my heart since the day I was born?

“I think sometimes about all the strange and wonderful things the world contains—the blue potato, the Venus flytrap, the duck-billed platypus.

“If there is room under heaven for all of these miraculous things, couldn’t there possibly be room for me?”

Some argue that God would never make a mistake, so transitioning from your biological sex at birth can only be sinful or wrong. The Church I was raised in takes a similar position. In its Proclamation of the Family, it states:

“All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.”

President Dallin H. Oaks, First Counselor in the Church’s First Presidency, has added, “Gender is eternal. Before we were born on this earth, we all lived as male or female spirits in the presence of God.” But earlier Church leaders were not so sure. Some taught that, in our pre-mortal life, we had the opportunity to choose to be a man or a woman. And President Joseph Fielding Smith taught that those who inherit the telestial kingdom, the Church’s third tier of heaven, would not have genitals and would therefore be neither man nor woman.

Moreover, nature provides examples of what are often referred to as gender mistakes. Again, quoting from Mad Honey:

“In college zoology classes I learned there are plenty of animal species that change sex. It’s called sequential hermaphroditism. Clown fish are all born male, but the most dominant one becomes a female. Wrasses work in reverse, with a female able to transform her ovaries into testes in about a week’s time. The slipper limpet, when touched by other male limpets, can become female. Male bearded dragons can change sex while still in their eggs, if exposed to warmer temperatures. Spotted hyena females have what looks like penises and have to retract them into their bodies for mating. Coral can go from male to female or vice versa. Common reed frogs spontaneously change sex in the wild.

“In other words, it’s perfectly natural.”

But this blog is supposed to be about movies, not books. So, if you want to get a sense of what it might be like to be transgender or to feel like the gender of your body is inconsistent with your soul, I suggest the following:

• Will and Harper:[i] Will Ferrell and his close friend of thirty years, Harper Steele, take a road trip to explore a new chapter in their relationship after Harper announces she is a transgender woman.

Here is the trailer for the film:  

• The Danish Girl:[ii] Inspired by the lives of Danish artists Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener, the movie follows the couple as they navigate Lili’s journey as a transgender woman.

Here is the trailer for the movie:

• Transhood:[iii] A documentary that follows four kids over five years, and how they and their families struggle, transform, and help define what it means to be human.

Here is the trailer for Transhood:

In closing, I echo these words from trans-activist Charlotte Clymer: “I genuinely hope that… anti-trans folks someday experience the joy and liberation of being comfortable in your own skin enough to know that the liberation of others is no threat to you.
Equality is not a pie; there is more than enough for e

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[i] Will & Harper:

• Production Companies:
• Director: Josh Greenbaum
• Starring: Will Ferrell, Harper Steele, and Tina Fey
• Release date: September 27, 2024

[ii] The Danish Girl:

• Production Companies: Working Title Films, Pretty Pictures, and ReVision Pictures
• Director: Tom Hooper
• Screenwriters: Lucinda Coxon and David Ebershoff
• Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander, and Amber Heard
• Release date: January 22, 2016

[iii] Transhood:

• Production Companies: HBO Documentary Films, BMP Films, and Herizon Productions
• Director: Sharon Liese
• Starring: Marci Bowers and Avery Jackson
• Release date: November 13, 2020