Transmilitary

TransMilitary was very well-received in its world premiere at Austin's SXSW Film Festival. It splices together the stories of 4 of the approximately 15,000 transgendered soldiers serving in the U.S. military. It tells their very human and complicated stories of their struggle to end the ban on transgendered individuals serving in the U.S. military. The film is beautifully told and skillfully edited. While clearly advocating for their inclusion, it doesn't shy away from addressing the complexity of their situations. Many of us were taught to see sexuality in simple binary terms. Films like this educate by allow us to break down the simple male/female dichotomy and explore the complicated and deeply misunderstood gray area in-between. The tragedy of the tale is that the progress that was being made under the Obama administration has been reversed by the close-minded bigotry of the current administration. Not surprisingly, it won the SXSW Audience Award in the Documentary Feature Competition. This film is highly recommended to all who are willing to watch it with an open-mind.

Lately there has been a trend of documentaries only telling one side of a story/argument and that creates a lot of ignorant sheep. If this were an action film I'd look for explosions, catch phrases, and excitement. However, as this is a documentary, I expect to learn facts and information. This film ignores the opposing side which makes a lot of sense. The military serves a function and is not capable of performing that function at the highest level when those with physical or mental handicaps are allowed to join.

We don't stand up for those prevented from serving with asthma, I'm sure there are jobs they could do in the military but they are detrimental to the strength of the military. The same goes for a population living with mental illness. Also, those with asthma aren't requesting that tax payers cover very expensive surgeries and hormones. I've heard a weak argument that the military covers viagra type medication so they should cover these expensive surgeries. Why do soldiers use viagra? Could it be that they get traumatized fighting in wars or working extreme hours? This film just tries to use emotions with no intelligent argument being made for what they are pushing.

The world will be better off when we stop pretending those with delusions are a disenfranchised population. There is no education to be found in this film as an education is only as good as the educator. Scientists world-wide do not believe in the multiple gender nonsense, that's why you learn about it from English, History, or (cringe) Gender Studies teachers. The last being a class that was invented to push this nonsense. Use critical thinking when you watch this or any other faux-documentary, do not just believe what you are told by people desperate for you to take their side. You can disagree with nonsense without being hateful, those with no legitimate argument just call people hateful to spark emotion when there is no reason.

This film fails at everything it tries to do and the only ones who will feel educated by it are the ones who already believe it or the very simple-minded.

It doesn't matter how many critics and film festivals they have this sort of movie is not popular with the masses. A lot of movie franchises have record low attendance due to people being tired of being preached to and called bad for not being a radical leftist. If you have any sense pass on this film.