gender revolution: A journey with katie couric
What: Two-hour documentary examines gender identity through scientific and social lenses.
When: 9 p.m. Monday.
Where: National Geographic channel.
What: Two-hour documentary examines gender identity through scientific and social lenses.
When: 9 p.m. Monday.
Where: National Geographic channel.
On Monday, the Boy Scouts of America reversed a policy of more than a century when the group announced it would begin accepting members based on the gender listed on their application, which would allow transgender boys to join the organization.
This Monday, some people may want to tune into the National Geographic Channel special “Gender Revolution: A Journey With Katie Couric.”
The journalist says she had been seeing stories almost every day dealing with gender issues and realized she didn’t know much about the topic. Like most of us, she grew up in a binary world. That was before “Transparent,” Caitlyn Jenner, Laverne Cox and bathrooms in North Carolina. In January, National Geographic magazine did a special issue called the “gender revolution.”
“I don’t think we ever really truly get to know the individuals that are having an impact on public policy or on school policy,” says Couric. “For me, it was just an opportunity to be a conduit to these stories.”
During the conversation, Couric and I were joined by J.R. and Vanessa Ford of Washington D.C., who are featured in the documentary. Last year, the couple’s youngest child transitioned at 5 years old and now lives as Ellie using female pronouns.
Vanessa says Ellie started to balk at being dressed like a boy as young as 18 months. “It was only when she got older and started to have access to dresses she started to prefer dresses.”
The Boy Scout decision predictably took very little time to draw negative reactions. The Fords say so far they have been lucky in allowing Ellie to make the decision.
“Personally, we have not run into anyone who has disrespected our child,” says Vanessa Ford. “There are people who have not understood, but they’ve respected our family and used ‘she’ and Ellie’s name.”
On the positive side, Vanessa Ford says they are part of a larger community of families going through similar experiences. “Ellie has brought in so many people we would’ve never met before,” she says.
“I think we’ve gained a lot over the last 19 months in expanding our community and learning new data,” adds J.R. Ford, noting they are part of The Trevor Project, a national organization that helps at-risk LGBT youth.
“It helps us with understanding and comparing our child to a kid who matches the gender he was given a birth — like do they have heightened levels of anxiety,” says J.R. Ford, who adds that Ellie seems “pretty much normal for a kid her age.”
However, the Fords have seen ugly comments online and gotten emails inviting them to “conversion” camps.
“There are things Ellie is going to have to deal with,” admits Vanessa Ford. “So we have a wonderful therapist, a pediatrician to support her and (are) changing her name so she can be protected in different arenas.”
But the couple is well aware that they are the exception, rather than the rule.
“It’s a testament to Vanessa and J.R.,” says Couric, “but it also represents the stark reality of having the means to be able to raise a child in honor his or her gender identity. I think about families that have a lot less resources and are in the community that is a lot less tolerant and may not have the education or understanding to support their child. It’s a very different scenario.”
Gender choice may seem like a new thing, but the story and history are more complex. The number of intersex people — sex characteristics that are not typically male or female — is one in 2,000 or 0.5 percent of the population. Some believe it is as high as 1.7 percent.
In the documentary, Couric talked with Georgiann Davis who was born with an intersex trait called complete androgen insensitivity syndrome. That meant she had testes inside her vagina instead of having ovaries. After experiencing abdominal pain as a teen, she was told she had cancer, but the operation was to remove her testes.
Since then Davis says she has since learned she has XY chromosomes. (The configuration for a man. XX for a woman.) She now calls the surgery “medically unnecessary.”
For decades, doctors have pressured parents to make a choice shortly after birth, but now medical professionals are being cautious. One family Couric interviews decided to not have surgical intervention when their daughter was born with ambiguous genitalia.
“They would rather to see how she identifies and let her make the decision,” says the journalist. “So it’s a current debate that’s going on within the medical and intersex community.”
The Fords admit they don’t know whether Ellie will change her preference when she gets older. If nothing else, they hope that by telling their story in “Gender Revolution” it will help people get the support they need.
Couric began the project to learn more, but says she has only scratched the surface of the many-faceted subject.
“The scientific world is taking the biological underpinnings of gender identity very seriously,” notes Couric. “So hopefully, the documentary is the way to provide people with a different way to look at things.”
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