An exciting new film by Nurse Practitioner and director Mark Freeman, Transgender Tuesdays has been acclaimed in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender communities but is geared to general audiences – and specifically aimed at practitioners and advocates for healthcare, academic instructors and students of Allied Health fields, Social Work and Psychology, Human Relations, History, Gender Studies and Government Services.
See what they have to say:
“…a turning point for transgender people throughout the United States”
“Transgender Tuesdays captures a momentous turn of events in the history of LGBT rights: the realization by San Francisco’s health officials that providing adequate care wasn’t only the right thing to do, but that it could also significantly improve the health of the most marginalized people in the LGBT community. The outcome would be a turning point for transgender people throughout the United States, as more cities adopted policies similar to that of San Francisco’s Tom Waddell Clinic.”
– Masen Davis, Executive Director and Tracy Garza, Founding Board Member of Transgender Law Center
“An opportunity… to engage more deeply around the needs of our trans students.” “Bringing this excellent film to campus provided an opportunity for our health center professionals to engage more deeply around the needs of our trans* students. The students learned more about the history of the trans* community. I highly recommend Transgender Tuesdays for campus programming.”
– Colette Seguin Beighley, Director, Grand Valley State Univ. LGBT Resource Center
“...required viewing…for anyone who hopes to work in any aspect of healthcare.” “My students are eager for information to help them work with transgender individuals. Transgender Tuesdays provides invaluable understanding and insight on a much-misunderstood population. It is required viewing in my classes and should be for anyone who hopes to work in any aspect of healthcare.”
– Stefan Rowniak RN, FNP, PhD, Ass’t. Professor USF School of Nursing and Health Professions
“The documentary reaffirmed my commitment to culturally sensitive health care and the importance of imparting this ethical position to my students.”
– Chenit Ong-Flaherty, RN, APHN-BC, DNP
“…a model program for health services across the nation. If available in every city, think how many more lives could be saved.” “The Transgender Clinic at Tom Waddell Health Center was the first public health program to provide accessible and respectful care for the transgender community during the height of the AIDS crisis, a time in which trans individuals faced discrimination, harassment and denial of services in most medical settings. This was not merely a place to get hormones. They partnered with community members and set out to save lives, and that is what they have done. This pioneering clinic has become a model program for health services across the nation. If available in every city, think how many more lives could be saved.”
– Cecilia Chung, Health Commissioner, City and County of San Francisco
“…gifted in eliciting the self-narratives of people who are often overlooked, and actively traumatized by much of society.” “Even against an extensive backdrop of engagement with people who have dedicated their lives to working with vulnerable populations, I can wholeheartedly attest that there are few individuals more gifted than Mark Freeman when it comes to empathy, compassion and sensitivity. He also, both clinically and artistically, is gifted in eliciting the self-narratives of people who are often overlooked, and actively traumatized by much of society. He has earned their trust, and keeps it—not just in the short run—but over prolonged decades of enduring support.”
– R. Jan Gurley, MD, AIDS Administrator, Fellow at Annenberg Center’s Reporting on Health, award-winning blogger of Ask Doc Gurley at SFGate
“Based on the stories of real people in the real world… an excellent addition to the films students see as part of their curriculum.” “I am happy to recommend a film that I believe every graduate school should have in their library. We interview many students each year who have no exposure to what it means to live as a transgender individual. In our own agency, the number of trans clients has grown exponentially each year for the last four years. Because it is based on the stories of real people in the real world I believe it would make an excellent addition to the films students see as part of their curriculum.”
– Louise Monsour, MA LMFT, Director of Clinic Training, Pacific Center for Human Growth
“gives a historical and current context to transgender individuals’ harrowing experiences, one that also transcends specific geographical areas.” “We at the San Francisco Police Department utilize Mark Freeman’s excellent film Transgender Tuesdays as a training aid in our transgender interactions class. The response from recruits has been favorable and had lead to great discussions after. I find it invaluable in relating real stories. This gives a historical and current context to transgender individuals’ harrowing experiences, one that also transcends specific geographical areas.”
– Officer Broderick Elton, Special Investigation Division, San Francisco Police Dept.
“By reaching a general audience this film helps us to see the transgender people as an 'us' rather than as 'them'... The film will be useful in social work courses...”
"By reaching a general audience this film helps us to see the transgender people as an “us” rather than as “them”... this film personalizes the healthcare issues and politics faced by transgendered people in a compelling narrative. There are numerous educational films on topics relating to LGBT issues—but none to date that I am aware of have addressed the unique health concerns of the transgender community. This film captures an important turning point in making healthcare accessible to the transgender community and will hopefully trigger discussion and reflection on broader LGBT issues among the public. The film focuses on the strengths of the transgender individuals and their ability to survive.
The film will be useful in social work courses to enhance and strengthen student perspectives on the diversity of the LGBTQ community and the struggles they face to maintain their dignity and self-esteem when their rights are not acknowledged."
☆☆☆☆ “Highly Recommended”
– Review: 2013 Journal of Gerontological Social Work, Debra Sheets, PhD, MSN, University of Victoria, Canada
“A solid addition to both LGBT studies and general collections, this is recommended.” “In their illuminating documentary filmmakers Nathaniel Walters-Koh and Mark Freeman (a retired nurse practitioner) profile a clinic in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district that has served the transgender population since 1993—the first public health facility to fill that role. Cabaret performer Veronica Klaus provides eloquent narration while patients and providers reflect on the divergent paths that led them to the Tom Waddell Health Center. Hailing from far-flung locales—including the Ozarks and Cambodia—most of the transgender subjects here did not enjoy happy childhoods. Marilyn Robinson, a ward of the state, worked as a prostitute when other jobs kept falling through, while Claudia Quijano, who suffered physical abuse in Mexico, discovered a more welcoming climate in the U.S. Astrid Olsen found the freedom to be herself in the Bay Area, but then her parents tracked her down, shipped her back home and forced her to live as a boy (she would eventually return). Except for Kelly J. Kelly, who had an awakening at 31, all of the interviewees here knew something was different form an early age, but didn’t know what to do about it, or had anyone with whom they could speak openly. Inter-titles offer statistics on the challenges faced by the transgender populace, including lack of access to proper medical care (doctor Barry Zevin recalls that many patients would wait too long to get help due to fear of discrimination.) The Tom Waddell Health Center Clinic, which stepped in with HIV screening and hormone therapy, proved to be so popular that several other clinics have sprung up in it s wake in the Bay Area and beyond. A solid addition to both LGBT studies and general collections, this is recommended.”
☆☆☆ “Recommended”
– review, K. Fennessey in Video Librarian vol. 28 no. 3
After its 2012 premiere to a standing ovation by nearly 1000 at the Castro Theatre during Frameline36 (the world’s largest LGBT Festival) it has traveled to 15 festivals from Hamburg to Hong Kong, Buenos Aires to Bangalore, and Atlanta to Albuquerque, where it won as Audience Favorite. It recently received an “Honorifica” award at Oaxaca FilmFest, joining its sister film “Big Joy” in Best International Documentary category. For a complete list of cities visited, please see HOW page. |
Presented with Kelly Kelly, one of the twelve stars of Transgender Tuesdays, at universities in the North and Midwest, and at CIIS (California Institute of Integral Studies) where she is now studying Pre-Law. The film was screened at the National Harm Reduction Coalition conference in Seattle, Transgender Symposium at UC Berkeley sponsored by Transgender Law Center and WPATH, to the SF General Hospital staff by the Center for Excellence in Transgender Care, at UCSF Nursing School and at USF, the Jesuit school, as well as the opening session of Forward Together National Symposium of medical and Allied Health students at UCLA in 2013 and 2014 at UCSF, Samuel Merritt University Nursing School, U of Washington LGBT Health class sponsored by Q-Med and Ingersoll Gender Services, both in Seattle. You can also bring Transgender Tuesdays to your school.
Contact: [email protected] |
Mark Freeman, RN FNP was honored by Kaiser Permanente for 25 years of service to transgender and HIV patients at Tom Waddell Health Center. The film he directed is being used in mandatory Continuing Education for all personnel in the San Francisco Dept. of Public Health, by the SFPD to train new recruits, and in San Francisco’s county jails, operated by the Sheriffs Department. It has also screened at a Navajo/Hopi Pueblo in New Mexico, an isolated area of the Brazilian Amazon, to LA Radical Fairies, at Endless Gaycation in New Orleans. Recently, it has been utilized in trainings by Planned Parenthood, Pacific AIDS Education and Training Center, the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care of Ontario Canada, and at the WPATH (World Professional Association for Transgender Health) 2014 Conference in Bangkok, Thailand. |
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