Film Summary & Using This Guide

Film Summary

Caught between the expectations of his Guatemalan immigrant family and his desire to live “happy and gay” with his long-distance boyfriend, 19-year-old Hunter Pixel Jimenez takes us on an energetic and colorful journey through his life as a trans teen in LA and his dreams for the future.

Watch To the Future, with Love here.

Using This Guide

This guide is an invitation to dialogue. It is based on a belief in the power of human connection and designed for people who want to use To the Future, with Love to engage family, friends, classmates, colleagues, and communities. In contrast to initiatives that foster debate, this resource envisions conversations undertaken in a spirit of openness in which people try to expand their thinking by sharing viewpoints and actively listening to one another.

The discussion prompts are intentionally crafted to help a wide range of audiences think more deeply about the issues in the film. Rather than attempting to address them all, choose one or two that best meet your needs and interests. And be sure to leave time to take action. Planning next steps can help people leave the room feeling energized and optimistic, even in instances when conversations have been difficult.

For more event planning and facilitation tips, visit https://communitynetwork.amdoc.org/.

Letter From Hunter Pixel Jimenez:

To The Future, with Love - Hunter's Letter

Preparing To Facilitate

Participants in any conversation arrive with differing degrees of knowledge and varied lived experiences with respect to the topics addressed in To the Future, with Love. It will be helpful to prepare for the conversation by grounding yourself in an understanding of the issues, and topics reflected in the film as you set an intention ahead of your event.

In your facilitation, we urge you to center the experiences and identities of those who have been marginalized. This will allow you to lead a conversation that maximizes care, critical curiosity, transformation, and connection.

The following resources will help you invite your community into a generative dialogue after screening.

Definitions:

Cisgender – Refers to people whose Gender identity aligns with their assigned sex at birth (cis- from Latin, meaning, “on this side [of].” In contrast to trans, from the Latin root meaning “across,” “beyond,” or “on the opposite side [of]”).

Genderfluid – Refers to people who have a gender or genders that change. Genderfluid people move between genders, experiencing their gender as something dynamic and changing, rather than static.

Gender identity: One’s deeply held, internal sense of oneself as male, female, a blend of both, neither, or something else. Identity also includes the words we use to convey our gender. Gender identity can correspond to, or differ from the sex we were assigned at birth. The language a person uses to communicate their gender identity can evolve and shift over time, especially as someone gains access to a broader gender vocabulary.

Gender role: The set of functions, activities, and behaviors commonly expected of boys/men and girls/women by society.

LGBTQI+: This is an acronym for “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex” The “+” sign recognizes the limitless sexual orientations and gender identities used by individuals.

Nonbinary and/or Gender Queer: Terms used by people whose gender identity falls outside the categories of man or woman, male or female. Nonbinary people may define their gender identity as both man and woman, as falling somewhere between these gender “binaries”, or falling outside the “gender binary” altogether.

Sex: Used to label a person as “male” or “female” (some US states and other countries offer a third option) at birth, this term refers to a person’s external genitalia and internal reproductive organs. When a person is assigned a particular sex at birth, it is often mistakenly assumed that this will equate with their gender; it might, but it might not. It is also possible to have a sex other than male or female, as is the case with people who are intersex.

Transgender or simplyTrans: Sometimes this term is used broadly as an umbrella term to describe anyone whose gender identity differs from their assigned sex. It can also be used more narrowly as a gender identity that reflects a binary gender identity that is “opposite” or “across from” the sex they were assigned at birth.

Transition: “Transitioning” is a term commonly used to refer to the steps a transgender, agender, or nonbinary person takes in order to find congruence in their gender. This term can be misleading as it implies that the person’s gender identity is changing and that there is a discrete moment in time when this takes place. More typically, it is others’ understanding of the person’s gender that shifts. What people see as a “transition” is actually an alignment in one or more dimensions of the individual’s gender as they seek congruence across those dimensions. A transition is taking place, but it is often other people (parents and other family members, support professionals, employers, etc.) who are transitioning in how they see the individual’s gender, and not the person themselves. A person can seek harmony in their gender in many ways:

• Social: changes in social identifiers such as clothing, hairstyle, gender identity, name and/or pronouns;
• Hormonal: the use of medical approaches such as hormone “blockers” or hormone therapy to promote physical, mental, and/or emotional alignment;
• Surgical: the use of surgery to modify of gender-related physical traits ; and
• Legal: changing identification documents such as one’s birth certificate, driver’s license, or passport.

Queer: A multi-faceted word that is used in different ways and means different things to different people. Some definitions include: 1) attraction to people of many genders; 2) nonconformity to cultural norms around gender and/or sexuality; 3) a general term referring to all non-heterosexual and/or non-cisgender people. Some within the LGBTQI+ community, especially older people, have experienced the use of the word “queer” as a hateful epithet and are reluctant to embrace it.

This article from, “Understanding Gender” from Gender Spectrum is a helpful primer on gender identity and gender expression. The definitions above come from Gender Spectrum’s terminology page “The Language of Gender,” and from Vanderbilt University’s LGBTQI Definitions.