A new documentary has been broadcasted in the US covering four university students all of whom are are transgendered. (Please skim the Wikipedia article if you don’t have any background on this subject.) It is called TransGeneration. It is on the Sundance and Logo channels (available on most digital cable and sat.)

It is a really great show. There are 8 parts, each of which features all of the four students: two of whom are transitioning female to male and two are transitioning male to female. These young adults are very interesting. Their stories are extremely compelling.

One of the students is T.J., who is Armenian from Cyprus (although he was born in Beiruit.) T.J. went to Melkonian in the 1990s as Tamar and won a Fullbright Scholarship to come to the US.

[T.J.] has embraced college as a place for intellectual, political and personal self-discovery. After graduating at the top of his high school class in Cyprus, T.J. received a Fulbright scholarship to study in the U.S. At Michigan State University in East Lansing, T.J. is part of the campus’ tight-knit transgender community, and openly expresses the male identity he sensed as a very young child. Bright and politically engaged, he has chosen to continue towards a graduate degree in Student Affairs Administration at Michigan State University. But T.J.’s gender expression is irrevocably at odds with his family and community in Cyprus, where he is expected to return after completing graduate work. His mother refuses to talk to him about the subject, and it is no secret that he is expected to sublimate his personal desires to the will of his community. As T.J. plans to a visit home in May, he realizes that he will have to confront his mother and sister about his desire to transition. And T.J. knows that if he is to become the man he deeply feels himself to be, he may never be able to go home.

When T.J. calls his mom in one of the episodes, you can hear the pain in his voice telling his mom that he only wants to visit for a week in the summer. In Armenian it is more painful than the English subtitles, certainly.

If T.J. goes to Cyprus, he will be forced to live as a woman again, something that he is not comfortable with.

Armenian GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered) people have a world of issues to deal with related to their families. T.J.’s story is not unique. Watching this show highlights a number of these issues. I can’t express in words what it is like to see this pain.

(I hate to make it sounds like this show is so upsetting - there are lots of positive moments as well.)

Armenian GLBT links

More information about T.J., including an interview.

MotherJones did an interview with T.J. in October. Here are some quotes:

Mother Jones: When did you begin exploring issues of gender?

T.J. Jourian: When I was a kid, especially at younger ages, three, four, five, I was pretty convinced that I was a boy and I went about my childhood acting like a boy. But then I was told that I wasn’t supposed to do that and that I was a girl. As a child, acting as a boy, it was cute, it was acceptable. But as I was growing up, it became a daily struggle for my family. “You can’t wear that, you can’t cut your hair that short,” my mother would say. “You need to act like this.” It was very hard for me. So after a while I just convinced myself that the rest of the world can’t be wrong and me be the only person that’s right.

MJ: Have you thought about taking your transition to the physical level by taking testosterone?

TJ: I can’t take T right now, but I wish I could. Once I graduate and get my master’s degree, I have to return to Cyprus for two years as a part of visa regulations. During my time in Cyprus I’m expected to be a woman, preferably a straight woman, so to start T would jeopardize that process. But I’m very much looking forward to when I can start taking it. I’m looking forward to all the physical changes; to not having to draw facial hair on and just growing it naturally; to having a voice that doesn’t pass as female all the time. That’s my primary giveaway.