Over the weekend we watched Katie Couric's "Gender Revolution," in which the Queen of Perky sets out to explore the rapidly evolving complexities of gender identity. The documentary-style show, which I believe is her first piece since moving from Yahoo to National Geographic, is an engrossing and at times disturbing look at the state of affairs for people whose gender isn't so black and white. Couric speaks to dozens of people of all walks of life, profiling intersex people whose parents made the life-altering decision to operate on them to make them a boy or girl based entirely on the arbitrary size of the phallus the infant was born with as well as a variety of transgender people, including a 4-year-old who came out as trans.
The show became particularly heartbreaking when I saw the headline the next day that the Trump administration -- who we've been told by conservatives over and over were not looking to "take away anyone's rights" -- had made the decision to no longer defend President Obama's guidelines for transgender students that allowed them to use the bathroom appropriate for their gender identity. This hit particularly hard after hearing Couric's guests describe the enormous pain and humiliation they have faced in public schools, and that nearly 50 percent of trans children attempt suicide. (How is stigmatizing these kids helping anyone?) Learn more about "Gender Revolution: A Journey With Katie Couric" HERE and read more about Trump's opening salvo against LGBT Americans HERE.
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