Diagnosing Difference
Thursday, August 13 at 7:30pm
The fifth season of Frameline at the Center continues with Frameline33 favorite Diagnosing Difference.
What does it feel like to have your very being defined as a medical category? This groundbreaking film
is the first to explore the impact of the Gender Identity Disorder (GID) diagnosis on people who
identify on the trans spectrum in their own words and images.
Bypassing old-school Standards of Care for transexualism and
confronting the GID mental health categorization, Diagnosing Difference lets us hear from real experts, like elder diva Miss Major who served as
a trans activist helping folks in the ’60s, and San Francisco’s own
Cecelia Chung contradicting “medicalization” with examples of positive
trans identity in other cultures. Plus the down-to-earthiness of
activist treasure Adela Vazquez and the punk rock directness of Shawna
Virago, rejecting gender transition merely to become “a
gender-normative person like a Stepford wife or a tv sitcom dad.”
Diagnosing Difference humanizes the debate around the GID diagnosis by valuing personal
experience as a vital (and often ignored) form of expertise. Rather
than trying to create an exhaustive examination of the diagnosis or
offer claims of universal representation, Diagnosing Difference is purposefully personal, seeking to expand the experience of the
audience, provoke thought, and create as many questions as it answers.
Co-presented by El/la Program Para Trans-Latinas, Fresh Meat Productions, TGI Justice Project, Tranny Fest, and TRANS:THRIVE.
Kindly arrive early as seating is limited. Don’t miss this FREE screening of this powerful film! Q&A with filmmaker and subjects to follow screening.