Trans doc She's a Boy I Knew

At a time when small children are thinking about their first day of school and how to ride a bike, Gwen Haworth (who was at the time a young boy named Steven) knew that her gender identity was awry. Even at that oft-innocent age her instincts were to keep those desires secret from everyone, something she kept to herself for more than two decades. "I've been aware of this since I was four," says Haworth. "That meant 23 years of keeping this secret hidden, 23 years of self-hate and internalized transphobia."

The frustration in her words is palpable. But these days the emotion that resonates from Haworth is peace, a softness of spirit. This is no queer tragedy. In fact, Haworth's story is inspiring and worth celebrating — and comes complete with a happy ending.

The ending however is really just another beginning, in the form of a touching film entitled She's a Boy I Knew. Haworth's first- and second-person account of her evolutionary journey pre- and post-transition takes on a host of brave topics in front of the camera, asking difficult questions not just of herself but also her parents, her siblings, her ex-wife and her dearest friends.

As Haworth tells it, being trapped in the wrong body was incredibly difficult, but having no access to stories of successful transitions — either on film or in books — meant that the process was far more difficult and confusing for her and her family than it needed to be. "When I came out, people important to me didn't really know what it meant to be a transsexual," says Haworth. "There were a lot of things to learn, yet there wasn't anything out there to watch that we were aware of. Trans women are often seen as monsters or victims in the media.... I always saw either the victims or victimizers, the serial killers, gender as performance and that grey zone between what is crossdressing, what is drag. See  Inside Out: Trans doc She's a Boy I Knew