Film explores diversity in gender perceptions
Are there more than two genders? That was the question posed Tuesday at the screening of the film “Two Spirits.”
The film discusses the death of a transgender Navajo youth, who was murdered because of his sexuality, film creator Lydia Nibley said. The Navajo culture accepts four different sexes: male, female, males who feel female, and females who feel male, the film said.
Fred Martinez, the transgender Navajo, is one of the youngest victims of a hate crime. Nibley said she publicizes Martinez’s murder in order to bring awareness to hate crimes and the pain they cause in societies.
The hope is that by helping people understand sexuality and issues of the transgender, we will accept them as a community, Nibley said.
While looking for funding to pay for the film, one potential investor turned her down because “no one knew about Martinez or his death, and no one cared,” she said. So she took it upon herself to show respect for Martinez’s death, and she said it turned out people cared after all.
The film is now airing in film festivals worldwide and won the Audience Award on PBS, she said. Members of the gay community thought the film was the line of demarcation between tolerance and acceptance and celebration, she said.
“We’re making inroads,” Nibley said. “And millions of people are seeing this film.”
Gretchen Scheidel, a USU graduate student studying psychology, said she feels work needs to be done on the relationship between LGBTQA individuals and the community of Logan.
“Even saying LGB is like pulling teeth,” she said. “Adding ‘T’ on there is like some kind of edge of the world that I don’t think I’ll see before I leave here.”
Scheidel said she wanted students to attend awareness events like the film screening to help them understand sexual orientation issues. She said members of the community also needed to stand up to fight discrimination.
“You’d think that events like this would hopefully make an inroad by having people come, but people feel forced to come, so they push away,” Scheidel said.
Nibley said part of the problem is people view the LGBTQA community as something that doesn’t relate to them and feel they shouldn’t care or worry about it.
“Things like this feel sort of niche — like the only people who should care are queer Indians,” Nibley said. “We’re all the five-fingered people. We’re all members of the human family. I think this has to do with all of us.”
Nibley said issues of sexuality through the masculine and feminine play out in all of our lives, because we all have a certain amount of masculine and feminine qualities inside of us. A transgendered person has a different balance of masculine and feminine, she said.
“People must integrate the masculine and feminine to create a whole healthy human being,” Nibley said. “At some level, your maturation requires you to really grasp the masculine and feminine balance.”
Nibley said the more conversations people have with each other about sexuality, the more socially accepted the ideas of being gay or transgender will become among societies.
We all have to stand up and watch out for each other as a unified human family, Nibley said.
Ann Austin, director of the Center for Women and Gender, said “I feel it’s important that people understand gender from just the binary male and female but know that there are many degrees.”
The Center for Women and Gender sponsored the event, with the goal of bringing the discussion of gender to the forefront, Austin said. She said the film speaks to the American value of inclusion.
The Center for Women and Gender presents research each year on gender issues.
Austin said Nibley’s film was an excellent example of graphic research of transgender people.
“Is there possibly four genders,” Austin asked, “or seven or nine?”
This is an interesting question that warrants thoughtful investigation from USU students and the community, she said.
– marissa.shields@aggiemail.usu.edu