- I'm Hillary.
- And I'm Rocco.
- And we're here on the streets of LA
to see what people know about the world.
- And genitals.
(soft music)
- What is your gender identity?
- Um...
- Like, what do you mean?
- What do you mean by that?
- Like, how do you identify?
- Like straight or gay or bisexual?
- No, gender not sexual preference.
- Oh, oh, I'm obviously a male.
- I'm a girl. - A brother.
- I identify with female.
- I identify as male.
- How do you know that you're a man?
- Um...
- 'Cause I have a penis.
- I got a dick, man.
- Based on what's between my legs.
- What do you think makes you feel like a girl?
- Um, I think I just like femininity.
- My reproductive system is of a female.
- I mean, it feels comfortable for me.
- I've always felt like a woman,
but like many people we talked to on the street,
I've never questioned why.
But some Angelenos had a
more sophisticated understanding of gender.
- In my mind, I don't categorize my thoughts,
or my thinking pattern as feminine or masculine.
- What your body and what your mental mind is
are two completely different things.
- The best way I've been able to kind of identify it
is as a spectrum, and you lie somewhere on it.
- So what exactly does that mean?
I sat down with a few people
to hear about their own personal experiences of gender.
- I'm here with Rocco, founder of Original Plumbing,
a trans men's magazine and health coach.
We spoke to a lot of people about
what gender means to them.
But we didn't really arrive on an answer.
So what does gender mean to you?
- Um, I think part of the reason that
we didn't arrive at an answer is because
gender is so specific and individual.
- Gender, to me, is what someone is,
just what they self-identify as,
like what you feel like in your head.
- I feel like gender is this sausage casing.
Like our body might be in this gender,
but what's inside when it comes out of this casing
may not be expressing the casing.
- Gender's kind of a bullshit social construct.
It sells a lot of clothes
and let's people have men's and women's deodorant.
When it comes down to it, it's just marketing.
- So let's say that you guys,
that you woke up tomorrow and you didn't have
the same genitals that you have now.
Like you switched them.
Would you still feel like a man?
- If I'm still the same but just with a vagina instead,
I guess I would still be a male.
- I would still feel like a girl, yeah.
- I'd still be a man.
- Yeah, that's interesting though.
- Something to think about, right?
You never really think, no one questions it.
Most people don't have to question their gender,
or even give it a second thought.
But if you're a person who's trans or gender non-conforming,
ie, someone who doesn't feel like they're male or female,
then you have to give it more thought
because your brain is telling you this one thing
and your body is exhibiting something else.
- So what is transgender?
- Transgender is an umbrella term that basically
houses people who feel that their experienced gender
is different from the one that was assigned at birth.
And that's not dependent on medical or hormonal transition.
- Gender is constructed.
This pink is girl, this blue is boy.
- They should put all these kids in green and yellow.
Because you don't know.
No one knows until, I don't know, until it comes out.
- For me, personally, as a trans person,
it was like, I felt male,
and never felt comfortable female.
- I don't feel like I'm a girl
and I don't feel like I'm a boy,
but I feel I kinda have everything inside of me.
- You were born as a male.
- Yes, I was born a male.
- Is that like an okay thing for me to say?
- Yes, it's totally an okay thing to say,
just because it's straight from the horse's mouth.
And yeah, I was born male, I identify as female,
but if people, you know, want to see me any other way,
that's on them.
- Do you think that you'd be able to tell
if someone was transgender?
- I think it depends.
- I can. I can, I think.
- Not all the time, no.
- Could you tell that I'm trans?
- (laughs) Honestly?
- [Rocco] Yeah. - No.
- You're not male though.
- [Rocco] I am. - Okay, you are male.
- But I'm a transgender man.
- Are you?
Damn, you look good for,
is that what happened to you?
All those shots did that to you?
(Rocco laughs)
Got rid of your breasts.
They did a good job on you, bro.
- I like to think I did a good job.
- I'd like to see the before and after.
- From female to male?
- [Rocco] Yep. - No way!
- Yeah, so you can't tell.
Treat a trans person as you would anyone else.
It's not about special needs, it's just like
a special set of circumstances around their needs.
So I would say like, don't make any assumptions.
- So I know that pronouns in the trans world
are a big thing.
And if I look at someone and they read a certain gender,
like should I be asking every single person
what pronouns I should be using?
How does this work?
What's the best way to go about it?
- Honestly, you should go with whichever one
looks like they're trying to portray the most.
- If you're unclear of like pronouns,
like, what pronoun to use,
either just use they, because it's a gender-neutral option.
- You can ask them in an intimate setting
if you are unsure.
Like, don't ask in a group.
Please don't ask in a group.
- Ask compassionately, and kind of ask
like it's not that big of a deal.
- People are gonna fuck up.
Around people's gender identities,
their pronouns that they prefer,
all of that, you're gonna make mistakes.
Everyone makes mistakes.
The biggest thing that you can do
is don't make a big show of your mistake.
Clean it up quick and be like, oops, sorry, she.
And then go on your way.
- It's up to the non-trans person to
really be as kind of polite
and open and real as possible,
without objectifying their trans friend.
- 'Cause even though you're like, this is so hard for me,
it is hard for you, and it's hard for that person
who's going through that,
and they're having that same interaction
with everyone that they're coming across.
- Respect whatever people want to be called.
It's much simpler that way,
and no one gets their feelings hurt,
and we're all happier.
- There are a lot of us who've never been able to hide.
Who've always looked like this.
Who are always noticed when they walk in the room.
- They are educating us, and they are the leaders.
And in fact it's almost a spiritual thing.
I think they're holding our hands and
they're taking us to another place.
(soft music)