PROMPT ONE: STARTING THE CONVERSATION

Immediately after the film, you may want to give people a few quiet moments to reflect on what they have seen. You could pose a general question (examples below) and give people some time to themselves to jot down or think about their answers before opening the discussion. Alternatively, you could ask participants to share their thoughts with partners before starting a group discussion.

• What in this film aligned with your knowledge about unhoused queer youth? What challenged your perceptions?
• Whose story in this film impacted you the most? Why?
• Did this film help you better understand the unhoused trans experience? If so, how?

Houselessness: Safety, Security, and Survival on the Pier

• What are some tools pier kids use to survive on the streets that you were previously unaware of? How do these tools speak to their strength, wisdom, and creativity?
• If you were a service provider, what services would you provide to kids living on the pier? What needs expressed in the film informed your choices? How do you think these services would provide sustainable support?
• Talking about the pier, Aniyah says, “Don’t make this your home… don’t put too much time into it because it’s gonna f*** your life up.” What external factors did you notice that led to people encountering struggles in their lives? What did she mean by that?
• How would you describe the relationship between the kids on the pier and police? More specifically, how did the pier kids seem to understand the role of the police in their lives?
• In what ways was police brutality normalized in the lives of those who live on the pier? Can you point to some examples from the film?
• How do you think the police would have rationalized putting their hands on pier kids throughout the film?
• In sharing his experience, Desean Irby says, “Being homeless and HIV negative is very hard. When you don’t have a handicap or disability, or something for the NYC system to manipulate in your favor.” In the face of this, Desean found alternative ways to support himself. What were a few of those ways? If you were a pier kid with this knowledge, and the knowledge that people with HIV can live a healthy life with antiretroviral therapy, would you consider contracting HIV to get housed?

Gentrification of a Safe Haven

• Christopher Street and the Christopher Street Pier were once a haven for QTBIPOC (queer, trans, Black, Indigenous people of color). What were the signs of gentrification you noticed in the film? How did this affect the security of the pier kids?
• What did you notice about the interactions between the pier kids and the pier’s visitors? Who seemed more comfortable?
• Early in the film we are introduced to a young White man who works in the financial district. In his interview, when asked if he noticed the Black trans community on the pier, he says, “Black doesn’t belong in the same category as homosexuals.” What does this say about his perception of the people he’s sitting next to? How would you respond to his inability to engage with the Black trans identity?

The Many Faces of Family and Community

• What were the beautiful things you noticed about the pier community?
• Have you ever felt a sense of belonging as strong as that of the kids on the pier? If so, what did that belonging do for your sense of wellbeing?
• What was your reaction to the opinions of Krystal’s mother and aunt about her transition? How would you engage in that conversation?
• OR - Krystal’s aunt Tamarah asks Krystal, “What’s wrong with taking this lifestyle and setting it outside of your mother’s door so that you can go in there and love on her?” How would you respond to that? Would you echo Tamarah’s sentiment and ask Krystal to stop being herself for her mother?
• How does Krystal’s love for her biological family express itself differently than her love for her chosen family? How is it the same?
• In what ways did the chosen families on the pier mirror your own chosen or biological family? In what ways did they differ?

Sex Work

• What are some reasons pier kids engage in sex work? What are some factors that lead them to choose this?
• What did you learn about sex work from this film that you did not previously know?
• How can sex work be dangerous for the pier kids?
• A number of pier kids discuss the ways the businesspeople, Wall Street people, and other folks with jobs and marriages take advantage of their need for money. With this awareness do you think the sex workers should be prosecuted for sex work? What alternative methods could be used to promote safety for sex workers and clients alike?

Optional: CLOSING QUESTION/ACTIVITY

Here is an example.

At the end of your discussion, to help people synthesize what they’ve experienced and move the focus from dialogue to action steps, you may want to choose one of these questions:

Did this film change your understanding of people living on the streets? If so, how?

Did this film change your understanding of the trans experience? If so, how?

What are you going to tell others about this film?

Optional: TAKING ACTION

This section suggests ways for viewers to get involved in their communities and address the issues expressed in the film. Here is an example.

If the group is having trouble generating their own ideas for next steps, these suggestions can help get things started:

Search for a local or regional Black trans community organization and support their work by listening, donating, and sharing.

Consciously center Black trans and non-binary people in your world. By doing this, we are bringing awareness to some of the most marginalized experiences, and from this place we can collectively acknowledge and operate with an awareness of what we all need to be free.

Inform yourself about the laws and resources of your local homeless response system. Find ways you can get involved.

Acknowledge people living on the streets. Regardless of whether you have money or food to share, do not look through them or around them. See the humans who are our neighbors.

Maya Angelou once said, “The truth is, no one of us can be free until everybody is free.” Without addressing cultural homophobia and the oppression of Black trans folks within the Black community, no one will be free. If you are part of the Black community, have open conversations about homophobia and its consequences in the fight for our collective liberation.

Learn about the movement to decriminalize sex work. Follow organizations leading this work and support by spreading the conversation, donating, and sharing their efforts.