Purpose – TransGeek

30/Mar/20154/Nov/2015

Well Deserved Recognition

Our friend, and the producer/assistant director of TransGeek Movie, Sayer Johnson, was named as one of the 2015 Trans100 last night!

Sayer is a parent, partner, artist, social worker, and lifelong activist. He proudly identifies as a queer transgender man. Sayer sits on the board of the LGBT Center of St Louis; and is President and Co-founder of the Metro Trans Umbrella Group. Sayer worked with MTUG and The University of Missouri St. Louis, to help create the first conference on transgender issues in the St Louis Metro region. He has a screenplay called “Intentional” in pre-production. Sayer has also helped to bring the stories of trans people to NPR’s acclaimed “StoryCorps.” He spends as much of his time as he can with his family and working to help create power for transgender people in St. Louis and the metro east regions.

Without Sayer’s friendship, encouragement, and patient guidance; their would be no TransGeek Movie. He has guided every step of production; schmoozing with potential participants; and gently guiding my understanding of the cost and rewards of living an authentic life. Sayer is a fierce and loving advocate in all he does. This film is only a small part of his amazing work. I am very lucky to count him as a friend and creative partner.

Congratulations Sayer on a well deserved honor. You are awesome and we love you!

13/Feb/20144/Nov/2015

On the internet, nobody knows you’re cis.

Update Feb. 13, 2014 @ 10:22

@SailorPlutoid suggests that the title of the post should probably be more like:

On the internet, ~~nobody knows~~ everyone assumes you’re cis. Until you use the word “trans”.

Damn! Here I thought I was being so clever. In fact, I was only demonstrating that I don’t even know what I don’t know. Thanks @SailorPlutoid for helping me navigate the minefield of my own prejudices.

Back to our original post…

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In the interest of full disclosure: I identify as a white, middle aged, heterosexual, cisgender, male. There are two reasons I feel it is important to state this explicitly. The first is a practical concern that affects how I go about making this movie. The second is, perhaps, a more important observation about why I think this project is important.

Over the past month I have had three separate interactions with people on Twitter that made it clear that they assumed, not surprisingly, that I am a transman. Well of course: My Twitter handle is @TransGeekMovie and I tweet a fair amount about LGBTQI and gender issues. Nonetheless, this misunderstanding came as a surprise to me. It’s clear that I needed to make my gender identity explicit.

Continue reading “On the internet, nobody knows you’re cis.”

1/Dec/201110/Jul/2012

Making their own lives.

Everyone struggles to find their place in the world. This is the story of individuals with the courage to assert their true identity, and make their own lives.

TransGeek is a documentary exploring the contributions of transgender men and women in science, technology, and speculative fiction.

We are in active production.