Investigative journalist Lisa Ling's
documentary series Our America is winning praise for a recent
episode focusing on transgender people.
Our America premiered on
February 16 on Oprah Winfrey's newly-minted cabler OWN.
According to Ling, the series is “all
about what it means to be an American.”
On the February 22 episode titled
Transgender Lives, Ling interviews transgender men and women
in an effort to understand what it means to be a transgender
American.
In the episode, we meet 7-year-old
Hailey, who gave up her given name, Harry, and who identifies as a
girl.
“There's some people who might say
that you're encouraging this kind of behavior,” Ling tells Hailey's
parents, Barb and Steve. “That you are encouraging this little boy
to be something that he's not. How do you respond to that?”
“What we've done is finally come to
terms ourselves with how to raise a healthy child, instead of raising
a child who feels some sense of shame or secrecy about who she is,”
Barb says.
Steve is more pragmatic, worrying about
Hailey's future and ultimate happiness: “For right now, right
here, first grade's pretty safe, but the future can be really scary …
Sometimes I sit there and I get really concerned. Who's going to
love my child, you know? Who's going to fall in love with her?”
(A video clip is embedded on the right panel of this page.)
Media watchdog the Gay & Lesbian
Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) praised the episode for “its
focus on the personal stories and emotions of the individuals
involved rather than technical definitions.”