The Brandon Teena Story

"The Brandon Teena Story" (1998): This is the documentary which inspired the film "Boys Don't Cry", about the young woman who cross-dressed as a man, and was eventually beaten, raped, and later shot to death. No, it's not a comedy. Nor will you want to live in a small town, the Midwest, on a farm, or near country-western music… but then you'll come to your senses and realize that this sort of horror can, and does, happen anywhere. Was Brandon a good kid? Not really. She was a check forging thief. Were her friends any better? It's hard to decide by the documentary, but I almost MUST believe SOMEONE was level headed and decent. Were the police effective and professional? I doubt you'll want to rely on them when you're traveling through Nebraska. Was the criminal justice system fair? Well, how do you feel about plea bargains, and rats who rat on other rats? Are there ANY people in this sad story you want to go line dancing with? I'll leave that to you. (It would be a good idea to rent "Boys Don't Cry" and watch it after "The Brandon Teena Story". Hillary Swank stars, and has "Brandon" nailed. It's a top notch film.

Just a note of clarification. Brandon, did not lie about his gender. Brandon lived his short troubled life trying to express his gender the way he saw it and wanted others to see it. What he did however cover up was the truth of his biological sex. I tend to agree that full disclosure of these facts to his sexual partners would have been just. However, people are often not understanding of issues of gender nonconformity. Nor, have many people been equipped with the language, self-understanding, support, safe-space, and confidence to speak about these things without fear of being met with fear, ignorance and hatred.

Our society has a strictly enforced binary gender system that is extraordinarily hard on those who do not conform. This is so entrenched in the sub-conscious of most everyone from such an early age that sometimes it seems that only those of us who do not fit in that system know that it is there and has been constructed by a society built on easy answers and small thinking that limits so many of us in numerous ways. It is so ingrained in people to believe that woman = feminine / man = masculine and all the stereotypes and behaviors that go with these two choices that they think these unwritten (and sometimes written) rules are natural. Therefore those who do not, nay, cannot play by these rules are unnatural, sick, sinful .. etc. So while I was disgusted by the behavior of the local authorities (including the civil court judge) I was not shocked. Serious deep changes need to be made to the way we as the human race see sex and gender or this type of appalling hatred will continue.

I thought the movie was great. I wished that I could have met Brandon. I felt sorry for him and what he went through. THEM (so called men) took a life and for what?? Because of how someone lived his life. BRANDON didn't hurt anyone not by a long shot. He was a kid hanging out and having fun with his friends.

People are always talking about peace and love. To me people don't care about anything, they care about themselves and they don't care who they hurt. But my question to them is.... WHY? What do you get out of it? We all live in the same world. We are all going to die sooner or later. Why cut there life short. And over something that never concerned them in the first place. Brandon's life was taken from him because of someone's stupidity. I don't feel sorry for Tom nor John. I feel sorry for Brandon's mother and family. Because they lost someone they loved for no reason.

The most disturbing element of this story for me is the horrifyingly inappropriate, and unprofessional way the so-called "law enforcement officials" dealt with it.

The fact that ignorant, uneducated, mentally and genetically impaired American citizens like Brandon's rapists exist is an unfortunate reality that I've nevertheless learned to expect. However, I will never get used to witnessing those same behaviors in people we elect, pay and trust to keep us safe.

I can only hope that we are still at the earliest stages of evolving as humans.

This video holds nothing back, giving viewers actual footage of the town and neighborhoods where the victim and killers had once walked, drove and partied in. It also takes you up the country road to the talked about farmhouse where three people were murdered in the dead of winter night. There are actual crime scene photos of Teena Brandon and the inside of the broken-into farmhouse. I found those particularly disturbing, but I guess that is how to try capturing the essence of what it was like so viewers may learn from it. The video also includes interviews from friends and family of the killers and the victims. There are even interviews from inside the prisons from the killers themselves, trying to appear wrongly accused and failing miserably. The clueless sheriff is also seen praising their law enforcement, even after botching the rape and murder case in front of the world. This is not for children or the squeamish, and it really makes a strong impact.