All language subtitles for Original.Sin.Sex.S01E04.The.New.Normal.720p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-SPiRiT

♪

NARRATOR: We all think
we know what's normal

when it comes to sex.

ANDY COHEN: Normal is such
an antiquated term.

DAN SAVAGE: You ask people
what is normal sex,

and people will say,

'A man and a woman
married to each other,

missionary position,
the lights are off.'

And that's actually
freakishly rare.

DR. RUTH WESTHEIMER:
There's no such thing as normal.

NARRATOR:
If normal doesn't exist,

why do we cling to it
so tightly?

CHRIS FREEMAN: There are
all kinds of stories

that just show us the simplicity

of male, female,
masculine, feminine.

That's a simplicity
that just helps us think.

It's not anything connected
to any kind of reality.

DR. DREW PINSKY:
There's a lot more to sex

than just the biological act.

It's who we are.

And as a result, it's intense,
and so it's hard to talk about.

RuPAUL CHARLES: People feel
threatened by change,

and they're gonna fight it
tooth and nail.

[pounds gavel]

NARRATOR:
So what is the new normal?

MAN: We also should have
the basic constitutional right.

KEVIN STEA:
It's a bold statement

to come out and declare
who you are.

JULIE VU: My boobs have

been growing for real.

PENN JILLETTE: All bets are off,
ladies and gentlemen,

and that's beautiful.

BRITTANY: We had a really
awesome threesome.

ANN COULTER: The sky has fallen.
What's next?

♪

NARRATOR: Think you know
what's normal?

WOMAN: A normal girl has
sex urges and emotional desires.

These urges can become
difficult to control.

NARRATOR: The new normal is that
we're all making our own rules

in the game of life

when we're talking
about sex and gender.

DR. DREW PINSKY: I think there's
much less rigidity

and much less judgment

and much more acceptance
of individual choice.

NARRATOR:
When it comes to changing

our most basic assumptions
about sex,

the story starts
with a biologist

who set out to collect
hard scientific data

about human sexual desires.

HELEN FISHER:
Alfred Kinsey did for sex

what Christopher Columbus did
for geography.

He opened up this whole world,

and he was part of this whole
sexual revolution.

He really, in many respects,
began it.

ALFRED KINSEY: Today, we are
going by film to the campus

of Indiana University
in Bloomington,

where the Institute
for Sex Research is located.

FISHER: Sex is a very powerful
human experience.

And here came a man

who really wanted to study it
scientifically.

Much of the world
was fascinated.

Much of the world was terrified.

JOHN D'EMILIO:
In 1948, Alfred Kinsey,

a biologist in Indiana,
published a study

called Sexual Behavior
in the Human Male.

AUDREY BILGER: The Kinsey study
set up a scale

that identified one as either
straight on one side

or homosexual on the other side,

and then there was a range
across that scale.

And that's
a pretty radical idea,

because what it suggests
is that maybe many people

could be just a little gay
or not entirely straight.

And those could be problematic
ideas for some people.

For other people, though, it
might be completely liberating

to imagine that you can
act out your identity

however you see fit.

NARRATOR:
According to Kinsey's research,

37% of American men had reached
orgasm with another man

at least once.

Fully 10% were more or less
exclusively gay.

The findings shocked America.

FISHER:
He was very controversial

because a lot of people
are scared

of any indication
that they may be gay.

MARGARET NICHOLS:
He never viewed

non-standard sexual practices
as abnormal.

All sexual variation is normal
as long as it's consensual

versus anything that's not
geared towards reproduction

is abnormal.

NARRATOR: Not satisfied
with blowing apart

traditional ideas
of male sexuality,

Kinsey set his sights
on another unexplored subject.

D'EMILIO: Five years later,
he followed it up

with the study
about the human female,

in which he collected
their sexual histories.

TRISTAN TAORMINO: When Kinsey
published the report

on female sexual behavior,

it really was
a kind of a bombshell.

TAORMINO:
What it ultimately conveyed

was women have sex
as much as men.

Women have desires.

It just totally flew in the face
of what we thought,

which is that women
are chaste and pure,

and they have sex
only in marriage

and only for procreation.

WOMAN: Intercourse should
properly be reserved

for expressing love
in your marriage

and for creating children.

TAORMINO: And Kinsey
blew that wide open.

D'EMILIO: There was a tremendous
gap between the official norms

and the way that Americans

were actually living
their sexual lives.

WOMAN: Uncontrolled sexual
behavior usually is a sign

of an immature
and insecure person.

ANDREA SCOTT: It surprised
a lot of people

how free people were
with their bodies,

including the neighbors that you
didn't think were messing around

as much as they were.

TAORMINO: And there isn't
this great divide

between what men want
and what women want.

That actually we're a lot more
alike than we are different.

MAN: We are not all alike
in what we like.

Some of us have one like.

Someone else has another like.

We differ in our desires.

NARRATOR: By applying science
to a previously taboo subject,

Kinsey's study
pulled back the curtain

on the fact that people
were having sex

for pleasure and pain.

PENN JILLETTE:
There's no person I've ever met

that doesn't like creepy sex.

NARRATOR: As a new kind
of normal emerged,

people gradually began
to acknowledge

sexual ideas and fantasies
that had been thought of

as too deviant
for civilized society.

And many were turned on
by what once frightened them.

TAORMINO:
In our sexual fantasies,

there's almost always
a power dynamic.

Someone is at the mercy
of someone else.

NARRATOR: The French aristocrat
Marquis de Sade

first brought to light the world
of sexual sadism

in the late 1700s

with his novels Justine
and 120 Days of Sodom.

GIULIA SISSA:
In Sade's scenarios,

pain is part of the pleasure.

NARRATOR: The works were quickly
banned in France

for their graphic cruelty
and sexual violence.

In 1957,

four years after Kinsey's
second study was released,

the French ban on the Marquis'
works was lifted,

and he and the practices
named after him

began to become more accepted
around the world.

SARI LOCKER: BDSM means

Bondage, Discipline, Sadism,
and Masochism.

The sadist is the dominant.

Doing the tying up
or inflicting some kind

of physical
or psychological pain.

Dominants are also called tops,

and submissives
are also called bottoms.

NARRATOR: As people explore
their sexual selves,

some are discovering
that for them

sex isn't an act between equals.

It's an exchange of power.

Some like to be in control.

Others like to be controlled.

MAN: The degradation of
these people are so complete

that their sex satisfaction
and climax come

only in being
tortured themselves,

of inflicting torture on others.

CAROLINE HELDMAN: Most people
in the general public

would say that BDSM is about
violence or about deviance.

TAORMINO: But people who do BDSM
can practice this whole spectrum

of different kinds
of activities,

different kinds
of power dynamics,

different kinds of role playing.

ROXANE GAY: If you are going
to use power over someone else,

you have to be ethical about it.

You have to listen to them
when they use their safe word.

You have to make sure
that you're not abusing

the power that you've
been given.

LOCKER: People's interest
in BDSM may be on a continuum.

There might be people who like
a little love bite

or maybe a little scratching
here and there.

And then there are gonna be
some people who really enjoy

much more pain or psychological
exchange of power.

DITA VON TEESE: I like to wear
a lot of corsets,

leather gloves, seam stockings,
very high heels.

I feel like I have
this power in that.

That imagery really influenced
my fashion style

because it made me feel
like I could have

that dominatrix attitude

but it could be done in a very
stylish and sophisticated way.

Showing people sex
in a glamorous way

gives them permission
to explore it

and play with racy ideas,
fetishism, bondage,

things like that.

NARRATOR: Then in 2012,
a trilogy of books about BDSM

bedded down on the New York
Times Best Seller list

for an amazing 100 weeks.

Fifty Shades of Grey
took BDSM into the mainstream.

WESTHEIMER: Fifty Shades of Grey
makes me smile

because it proves that women
do get aroused

by sexually explicit material,
but they want a story.

WOMAN: Even though
it's for a mature audience,

like, the story just makes you
turn page by page.

GAY: Fifty Shades of Grey
did a lot to bring BDSM

into the mainstream.

The sex is hot, and the sex
is very woman-centered.

VON TEESE: You can buy
pink ropes now, you know.

And girls are like, 'Yay,
I'm gonna buy the pink rope

and I'm gonna have my boyfriend
tie me up

or I'm gonna tie my boyfriend up
with the pink ropes.'

NARRATOR: Whether you choose
to indulge in a little pain

or a lot of pleasure,

the new normal
is all about choices.

BRITTANY: We had
a really awesome threesome.

JILLETTE: All bets are off,
ladies and gentlemen,

and that's beautiful.

NARRATOR: The new normal
of the post-World War years

has seen radical reevaluations
of sexuality.

Experts are starting to rethink
another basic assumption

about our sexual lives.

There is a theory that
a long-accepted social norm

might not be natural for
the human animal--monogamy.

WOMAN: In the close
love relationship of marriage,

that's when the sex urges

achieve their ultimate
and finest expression.

ANN COULTER: I think
the main purpose of monogamy

and monogamy within marriage

is for raising children
into civilized beings

and not become savage beasts.

PINSKY:
We fashion ourselves civilized,

yet in reality
we're sort of like

the rest of the animal kingdom.

CHRISTOPHER RYAN: Homo sapiens
evolved as a species

that mates promiscuously.

We have animal urges,
animal appetites.

MAN: Now, in a small town,
there's a mate-swapping club,

and the people
are furious about it.

RYAN: Human sexuality
is not designed

for maintaining a relationship.

It's designed by evolution
for starting a relationship.

DAN SAVAGE:
Monogamy is like snowboarding.

You're gonna fall.

MAN: We're really in love.

MAN: Uh-huh.

And you were really in love
with Betty and Mary and Alice,

and there'll be others,
I suppose.

RYAN: People are expected
to be married for decades.

And they're told that
if they love each other,

they will remain
sexually passionate

throughout their lives.

That's not true.

Look at how many marriages
are based on sexual attraction,

which fades out
after a few years,

and then you're left
with this person

you don't even necessarily like

and have very little
in common with.

LOCKER: There are many couples

who feel dissatisfied
in their committed marriage,

and they start thinking
that maybe monogamy

is not the way
that they want to live.

WOMAN: There's such thousands
and millions of people

in the world.

How can we be sure that we are
really meant for one another?

NARRATOR: Talk about polyamory,

and you'll hear
some schoolboy snickers.

But today, 5% of Americans
are trying their hands

at multiple-partner
relationships.

BRITTANY: We had
a really awesome threesome.

LOCKER: Is polyamory successful

for people who want
to stay married?

I think that's very individual.

I think it's wonderful

for people who can navigate
complex relationships.

And there really is
a great supportive community

of people who are enjoying
polyamory.

CONOR: We were equal that night.

BRITTANY: Yeah.

CONOR: We could both get
our needs met.

MARGARET CHO: I think polyamory
can work, but it's a lot to do.

Myself and my ex-husband

had a great time together
and with others.

CONOR: We have absolutely
no shame about it.

In fact, like,
I think we're really proud

of the connections that we make.

NARRATOR: Breaking away
from those monogamous values

is harder than it seems.

FISHER: They don't tell you

how much time they spend
being jealous.

We are a jealous animal.

WESTHEIMER: If you do go
with another partner,

later on there is jealousy,

and a lot of unhappiness
results.

CHO: It's hard to manage
the feelings

of more than one person.

It's something that I really
failed at doing.

Sort of need to be
like Jedi relationship skills

to have the ability
to be polyamorous.

FISHER: There are certainly are
people who want to stick

with a long-term,
deeply attached partner.

COULTER: It does seem
kind of crazy to me

that for thousands of years
it's been one man, one woman.

Now, we're saying there can be
two men, two women.

But three men?

Absolutely not.

We're drawing the line at two.

It doesn't seem like
we're leaping to polygamy,

but you do kind of wonder,

'What's next?'

NARRATOR: What's next is that
our traditional definitions

of gender expression
are being blown apart.

It's no longer just men
and women in the conversation.

ANDREA JAMES: One of the
exciting things about this time

and our place in history

is that the idea
that gender roles

are rigid, binary things

have really been challenged
in the last 40 or 50 years.

NARRATOR:
How we express our gender

goes right to the very core
of who we are.

And it's normally
the very first thing

anyone wants to know about us.

♪

MAN: What's it gonna be,
a boy or a girl?

FORTUNE TELLER:
What would you like?

MAN: Boy, of course.

CHRIS FREEMAN: Is it a boy
or is it a girl?

This is the first question
that's asked

from the time of conception,
practically.

For some reason,

binaries are the way people
make sense of the world.

So we have male and female.

D'EMILIO: From the colors that
parents dress their children in,

from the toys that they receive
on their birthdays,

from the very beginning of life,

we are learning
how to divide humanity

into two kinds of human beings,
male and female.

MEN SINGING:
♪ G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe

♪ Fighting man
from head to toe ♪

BOY: G.I. Joe attacks!

Boom, boom! G.I. Joe!

FREEMAN: Boys like sports.

Boys like playing with trucks.

If you're a little boy,

you're gonna get a truck
for Christmas

whether you like it or not.

WOMAN: Her name is Chatty Cathy.

DOLL: Let's play house.

FREEMAN: Girls like dolls.

Girls like playing dress-up.

Your sister is gonna get
a Barbie doll

whether she likes it or not.

They were telling you
how to behave,

not describing
how you would have behaved

if you had been given
a little more latitude.

JAMES: Everyone is assigned
a sex at birth,

and it's usually based

on just a simple glance
at our genitalia.

For some people,
they're fine with that,

but for other people,
they don't feel that that binary

expresses who they really are.

NARRATOR: Though society
may tell boys and girls

to conform to the current
gender norms,

some people will always feel
the need to express themselves

by thrusting beyond the limits
set by the society.

ESTHER PEREL: Transgression
is an essential ingredient

of the human spirit.

♪

Creativity lies
in transgression.

Imagination
lies in transgression.

And sexually, transgression
takes us to a place

that is sometimes beyond
the limits of our body,

beyond the limits of
the ordinary rules of our life.

♪

NARRATOR:
What we think is normal

when it comes to sex and gender
is influenced by everything,

from who we know
to what we hear,

and sometimes it's the music
that sets us free.

KEVIN STEA: There were
straight people there together.

There were gay people around.

Everything was okay.

CHARLES: That kind of freedom

scared the [bleep]
out of people.

NARRATOR:
Our understanding of normal

when it comes to our sexual
and gender identity

has come a long way.

But the jump from man and woman
meet, marry, and procreate

to understanding that people
can live outside those lines

isn't really a jump at all.

It's a series of small steps
that gets us to the new normal.

Some of those stepping stones
were laid down

by a musical genre
and a gender-bending rock star.

♪

Glam Rock was born in the UK,

and it brought forward
new ideas of gender

and covered it with glitter.

DAVID BOWIE: I used to be able
to stop traffic quite easily

by just walking down the street.

NARRATOR: Performers
like Marc Bolan of T. Rex

and the stage production
of The Rocky Horror Picture Show

presented audiences
with the playful dissonance

between a guitar-driven
masculine rock sound

and performers who played
with ideas of camp and beauty.

It was from this new
rock aesthetic,

mixing masculine and feminine,
that a new musical icon emerged

and forced us all to reexamine
our concepts of gender.

CHARLES:
David Bowie was such a genius.

The music, the talent,
it's all there,

but what he represented
had never been seen before.

BILGER: He wore wild colors
and makeup.

What did that mean?

[crowd cheering]

COHEN: Bowie comes out on stage
to stadiums of people

in drag, basically.

You have all these straight guys
just so confused.

BILGER: Artists like David Bowie

were playing around
with gender presentation.

BOWIE: I've always found
that I collect.

I'm a collector.

And I've always just seemed
to collect personalities,

um, ideas.

NARRATOR: Bowie tapped
into the desire

of an underrepresented
generation

to play with norms and rebel

against the establishment's
concept of gender identity.

And because of the pioneering
work of artists like Bowie,

ideas of how men and women

should present themselves
to the world

came to the center
of the pop culture conversation.

BILGER: When you can see
cultural figures

who are coloring
outside the lines,

that gives you some license

to shift your own way
of being in the world.

CHARLES: And that's
why people like me

and so many of my friends

gravitated towards David Bowie.

♪

NARRATOR:
Popular artists like David Bowie

refused to play
by societal norms.

And by the late 1970s,

pop culture was shaken
to its very core.

♪

A brand new style of music

highlighted by the hit movie
Saturday Night Fever

brought with it
a mainstream cultural shift.

STEA: I remember these topics
of sexuality being discussed

and around this world of dance,
and like it was all about sex.

The sexuality behind the disco
was power.

Like it was like taking it
for your own.

DAVID EISENBACH:
This is Studio 54

and cocaine and disco.

It's the Me Decade.

It's a free-for-all
of sexuality.

INTERVIEWER: Why do you feel
there's more freedom in New York

to express oneself than
anywhere else in the world?

MAN: Because there's so much
of everything in New York.

It's sort of like a Mecca.

Everyone comes here
to do whatever they want.

NARRATOR: On the surface,
disco appeared to be

a flashy movement
in music and fashion,

but what disco really did
was subvert mainstream ideas

of gender identity
and sexuality.

CHARLES: Disco was a beautiful
window in our culture.

It was so open.

INTERVIEWER: Why do you think
people come here?

MAN: When they see
what we do publicly,

they do it behind
their closet doors.

♪

STEA: Disco seemed like
this unbridled freedom.

There were straight people
there together.

There were gay people around.

Everything was okay.

♪

NARRATOR: Pop culture
has played a huge part

in reshaping our views.

LOCKER: We're in a time
like no other,

where everyone knows a celebrity
who is transgender.

NARRATOR: Pop culture has played
a big part in preparing us

for the way we think
about gender today.

Many people
now have the confidence

to express who they truly are,

even changing their bodies
to match their identity.

BUCK ANGEL:
For transgender people,

it is not just about your body,

it's about how you feel and how
the rest of the world sees you.

NARRATOR: And the transgender
identity conversation

has become centered around one
seemingly unlikely individual.

LOCKER: We're in a time,
like no other,

where everyone knows a celebrity
who is transgender.

JAMES: Whatever you think
about Caitlyn Jenner,

it is an absolute
watershed moment

in the history of trans people
around the world.

MERV GRIFFIN: Can anything you
do today or have done since 1976

ever top that moment?

BRUCE JENNER: No, I'll never be
in another situation like that

the rest of my life.

There's no arena for that.

FREEMAN: Bruce Jenner
won the decathlon gold.

He was the quintessential
masculine man

in American culture.

STEA: He was a hero of millions,
Wheaties Box boy.

FREEMAN: Cut to 40 years later.

We have Caitlyn revealed
as this kind of glamorous woman.

STEA: Poof!

How do you deal with that?

This is the man
who is now a woman,

and the LGBT community is
saying, 'Look, we're everywhere.

We're on your Wheaties box,
you don't even know it!'

MARCI BOWERS:
This is about someone

who we knew and we trusted
as an American hero

who, all this time, was never
happy with who he was.

INTERVIEWER: Tell me
about your first date.

JENNER: God, ooh!

The first girl I kissed,
oh, I was so scared.

JERRY SPRINGER: Imagine
having to keep that private

must make it horrible
waking up every day

knowing that you can't be
who you are.

JENNER: It was the quickest
little peck in the world.

I mean, I went over there,
boomp, gave her a kiss,

hey, I was out of that car
and I was gone, man.

I was running to the front door.
It was terrible.

JAMES: It's absolutely
unprecedented.

It has opened up
so many hearts and minds

to the possibility of this.

GEENA ROCERO: I think she's done
an amazing job

in creating
the bigger conversation.

NARRATOR: But Caitlyn Jenner
wasn't the first trans celebrity

to capture
the world's attention.

♪

REPORTER: Christine Jorgensen,
who used to answer to George,

creates quite a stir

as she returns home to New York
from Copenhagen.

Christine hit the headlines

following the series
of operations in Denmark

that transformed her from a boy
into a girl,

all of which made her
a celebrity to meet and talk to

when she stepped off the plane
at International Airport.

NARRATOR: In 1952, the world
was fascinated to learn

of a World War II veteran
named George Jorgensen

who had gone to Denmark and
returned as Christine Jorgensen.

D'EMILIO: Christine Jorgensen
is the first person

to have a gender reassignment
surgery

in the 1950s
in the United States.

She received a great deal
of publicity for it.

REPORTER: Christine,
are you happy to be home?

CHRISTINE JORGENSEN:
Yes, of course.

What American wouldn't be?

And I thank you all for coming,
but I think it's too much.

D'EMILIO:
The fact that Jorgensen

had served in World War II

gave added meaning to the story

because GIs who had served
in World War II

were American heroes.

JAMES: The fact that she had
been a military person

and was now sort of this
chanteuse, you know, showgirl,

really captured the imagination

of repressive
early '50s society.

REPORTER: In the news once again
is Christine Jorgensen,

shown being honored

by the Scandinavian Societies
of Greater New York.

BOWERS: Christine Jorgensen was

the number one news story
of the year.

It was something that people

had never even considered
possible before.

JORGENSEN: The ones that are
really responsible

for my success

are my doctors and my friends.

Thank you again.

FREEMAN: She presented as a very
attractive, lovely woman.

BOWERS:
She was put up on the stage,

and that literally became
her career,

but in the public's mind
at that point,

it didn't really seem like it,

the boy next door could become
the girl next door type thing.

MAN: Miss Jorgensen,
are you a woman?

JORGENSEN: I am more of a woman
than I am a man.

BOWERS:
She was a puppet caricature

but also a product of
the miracle of science in an era

where Ringling Bros.
Barnum & Bailey Circus

came to every town.

And in effect,
that's what she became.

But today,
with Caitlyn's emergence,

we're starting to say,
'Wait a minute.

This is about
someone's happiness.'

NARRATOR: Caitlyn Jenner
and Christine Jorgensen

are very public faces of
the trans visibility movement,

but they represent only the tip

of the struggle trans people
experience today.

TED CRUZ: Grown adult men
should not be alone

in a bathroom with little girls.

BOWERS:
Every civil rights movement

somehow goes
through the restroom.

NARRATOR: The traditional
definition of gender identity,

being only male or female,

is undergoing change
in the mainstream.

This is in part because
some brave individuals

are challenging the idea
of what is considered normal

in the modern world.

Historically, many cultures
already acknowledged

a much wider range
of sexual and gender diversity.

That was until they made contact
with the Western world.

ROCERO: In the Philippines,
we've had this long culture

of understanding
of gender fluidity.

And when I would talk
about that,

it's also important to talk
about colonization,

and colonization has a lot to do

in influencing and introducing
rigid identities.

NARRATOR:
Most modern civilizations

have adopted strict
male and female gender roles,

a very European construct.

But many older cultures
were more open to ideas

that go beyond
this accepted view.

For example,
gender was much more nuanced

to the native people
who inhabited the Americas

before Europeans arrived.

RUCHIRA GUPTA: There is such an
understanding of gender fluidity

in all original cultures.

RICHARD LAFORTUNE: The masculine
and feminine together

are sometimes reflected
in the body of one person

as if they have two spirits.

Explorers and missionaries
and academics

and anyone who encountered us
was not prepared for the fact

that we have
complex gender systems

expressing not only
gender identity but sexuality,

where sexuality is not a sin,

where sex is not a bad thing,
it's a human thing.

GUPTA:
In Native American cultures,

the body is seen as something
which houses spirits,

which houses sexuality,
because what is sexuality?

It's sexual desire, and desire
is something intangible.

NARRATOR: Ancient cultures
around the world

recognized multiple genders
and sexualities.

It was only when they
crossed paths with Europeans

that they were forced to conform

to strictly male
and female roles.

JAMES: The fact that we have
these very rigid binaries

probably arose out of building
a society around reproduction.

So, weddings and births
and things like that

become the things around which
all of society builds up.

GUPTA: Because they needed
to have label,

any kind of sexual act which
did not lead to reproduction

was made illegal,
so they got rid of things

which were natural
to Native American cultures.

JAMES: Because of that,
it almost starts to seem

like these two binary categories
are natural.

NARRATOR: The need
for Western society

to categorize people
as strictly male or female

has placed those who live

outside what has been perceived
to be normal

in harm's way.

GUPTA: In India, we have whole
communities of the third gender

who are called Hijras.

NARRATOR: In India,
Hijras are a caste

that are not considered citizens

and are often shunned
from society.

RAVI PATEL: I've gone to India
so many times

since I was a little kid.

My memory of the Hijras is that
they looked like gypsies,

sexually ambiguous,

and I was never allowed
to interact with them.

GUPTA: Because they suffer
from so much stigma,

the Hijras are often abandoned
by parents,

and because they were not seen
as citizens,

they could not access
any of the welfare measures

we have in our society
for poor people.

They have to live on the edges
of red light areas,

and they're sexually exploited
to get an income.

PATEL: I remember always
thinking, 'Are they lonely?

Why aren't we talking to them?'

They're clearly right there

on the one road
going into this village.

NARRATOR: As terrible as things
are for the Hijras today,

it wasn't always like this.

♪

GUPTA: Traditionally, the Hijras
were not considered bad people,

they were given the jobs
of being guards of harems

and cooks for kings,
and they were also worshipped.

But over the years, people who
wanted to colonize our countries

got rid of things
which were natural to us.

NARRATOR: Under British rule,

both homosexuality and
being Hijra were criminalized.

And after India's independence,

both groups had no real place
in society.

[shouting in protest]

GUPTA: There has been
a movement to free us

from laws which were created
under British colonialism.

GUPTA: The fact
that the Supreme Court ruling

has given them documentation

that now they are citizens
of India,

they can access all the services
due to marginalized people.

NARRATOR: Despite
the Supreme Court ruling,

homosexuality is still
illegal in India,

and there is a long path
to the acceptance

of India's gay, lesbian,
and transgender citizens.

HIJRA: Whatever Supreme Court
has given,

it is only on the papers,

it is not translated
into an action.

NARRATOR:
And much like the Hijras,

transgender people
all over the world

are fighting
for their civil rights

and their place in society.

CRUZ: Have we gone
stark raving nuts?

Grown adult men, strangers,
should be not be alone

in a bathroom with little girls.

SPRINGER: You can't go
in this bathroom

because 30 years ago
you were a guy?

She's a woman now.

CHARLES: People feel threatened
by change.

They don't want to change
their identity

or their perception
of who they think they are,

and they're going to kick up
a lot of dust,

they're going to fight it
tooth and nail.

SPRINGER: And if I felt
I was really a woman,

I'd want to be able to do
whatever changes are necessary

to fulfill what I feel I am.

And why should someone tell me
I can't do it?

DONALD TRUMP: People go,
they use the bathroom

that they feel is appropriate,

there has been
so little trouble.

CHO: There has never been
an occurrence

of a transgendered person

endangering people
in the bathroom.

SPRINGER: When I see the stuff
we get upset about,

it's embarrassing.

NARRATOR: Why has the question
of which bathroom someone uses

become such a hot-button issue?

BOWERS:
Every civil rights movement

somehow goes
through the restroom.

We witnessed this
in the last century

with blacks being denied use
of white restrooms,

and now, we're seeing an echo

of the same sort
of civil rights issue.

CHO: It's just a made-up thing
that is used

to sort of harness
the homophobia

that a lot of the country feels.

BOWERS: People are there to pee,
they're not there to pry,

or probe, or exploit
some sort of sexual fantasy.

COULTER: And how many
transgenders are there

in the country?

There can't even be that many.

NARRATOR: The U.S. Census Bureau

does not list transgender as
an option for gender identity.

Estimates show
there are at least

1.4 million transgender people
living in America,

but the numbers
shouldn't matter.

GLORIA ALLRED: Every individual
deserves to be treated equally.

NINA HARTLEY: There are plenty
of laws left to be passed

that support human dignity
on an individual level.

NARRATOR: The fight
over transgender bathrooms

shows us that we're not fully
accepting of the new normal;

there's still
a long road to travel.

BOWERS:
Life for transgender persons

is by no means easy even today.

Ask a trans person
how hard it is to find a job.

The increased visibility
has allowed

a more subtle
and difficult-to-fight

kind of discrimination.

ROCERO: What we see in the media
does not represent

what is happening
within our communities.

Last year, there's
more than 20 trans people

that has been murdered.

It's a long road ahead.

FREEMAN: Difference
does not mean perversion,

difference does not mean
abnormal,

difference is the reality.

We're all different.

NARRATOR: The fight
for transgender rights

is an ongoing part of our
evolution toward a new normal.

It's a fight with many faces,
names, and stories.

D'EMILIO:
In the last handful of years,

the issue of transgender rights
and identity

has become part of discussion.

ANGEL: So Caitlyn Jenner,
her thought process comes

from a more Republican,
very wealthy,

money-oriented way of thinking.

This is why
she doesn't represent me

or a lot of my friends
in the trans community.

NARRATOR: All of the discussion

about sexual orientation
and gender identity

in the last 70 years

has led us to a breakthrough

in understanding people
who don't identify

with what has been
traditionally defined as normal.

JULIE VU: Mwah.

D'EMILIO:
In the last handful of years,

the issue of transgender rights
and identity

has become part of discussion.

The year 2016
may very well turn out to be

a transgender moment,

and the implications of that
are profound.

MAN: For interactions
with the transgender community,

refer to the person
by the appropriate pronoun.

All people are to be treated
professionally, courteously,

and respectfully.

D'EMILIO: It challenges
the notion that who we are,

what we must look like,
how we must behave

has to correspond
to the body that we inhabit.

NARRATOR: A unique celebrity
like Caitlyn Jenner

is an entry point
into a larger conversation

about trans identity,

but she doesn't necessarily
represent all trans people.

ROCERO: Most trans people
is not Caitlyn Jenner.

Most trans people does not have
access to surgery.

Most people can't change
their name and gender marker.

ANGEL: Her thought process
comes from a more Republican,

very wealthy, money-oriented
way of thinking.

This is why she doesn't
represent me

or a lot of my friends
in the trans community.

FREEMAN: In terms of how much
Caitlyn helps trans people,

not maybe that much.

How much Caitlyn helps a public
conversation about trans issues?

Maybe a lot.

JAMES: There have been
conversations in households

that had never spoken
about transgender issues

before in their lives,

and that's really exciting.

NARRATOR: While Caitlyn Jenner
may be a divisive figure

in the world of trans politics,

she's only one member
of a movement

where more people
feel comfortable

revealing themselves publicly
as transgender.

TRANSGENDER WOMAN: My sex
assigned at birth is male.

I am nevertheless a woman.

What I'm in the process of doing
is making my body match my mind,

because I can't change the mind.

TRANSGENDER WOMAN:
My driver's license was changed,

my name was legally changed.

I've been on hormones
for several years.

I've grown breasts.

COULTER:
The sky kind of has fallen.

Suddenly, it's everything
is about transgenders.

COREY PARAMOR: I felt masculine

and I felt like I was
a little boy,

but my body wasn't.

JILLETTE: When I talk
to my transgender friends,

it's a little bit like talking
to my African-American friends.

I just don't have any sort
of grasp on the pain.

VU: I've always been myself,

just trapped in the wrong body.

NARRATOR: Today's stories
of transgender people

are as varied as the individuals
telling them.

Each is on a journey to feel
normal in his or her own skin.

ROCERO: Transitioning
is something that is very broad

and something that is very
varied for different people.

ANGEL: I wanted to be a boy,
and I said, 'I'm a boy,

and I'm a boy, and I'm a boy,
and I'm not a girl.'

And so Buck was this sort
of masculine cowboy name.

VU: I didn't know
what transgender meant,

I just thought I was
a very feminine boy

that loved pink and dresses.

PARAMOR: So I cut my hair off

and I started wearing
boys' clothes,

and my dad taught me
to tie a tie.

VU: One day, I just came up
to my mom

with the full face makeup on,

and she was
a little bit shocked.

Her son John
wasn't going to be anymore.

WOMAN: Ready?

[ding]

GIRL: Oh.

PARAMOR: I realized
that I couldn't continue

to not be my true self.

ROCERO: I've transitioned

from the very moment
I identified

that I am different than the
gender I was assigned at birth.

I knew at a young age

that I want to be the woman
that I want to be,

and I'm still going
into my transition.

NARRATOR:
But only a third of people

who identify as trans

actually go through
sex reassignment surgery,

either due to the cost
of the procedures

or by personal choice.

VU: My hair has been growing
pretty long now, actually.

My boobs have been growing
for real.

I really wanted to get
sex reassignment surgery,

Adam's apple surgery, and
then my breast augmentation.

ANGEL: We're going through
an evolution,

but I think this evolution
is gonna take a long time

to get to a point
where we no longer say,

'I'm male or female
or I'm gay or straight.'

Your body is yours,

and you can define your body
however you want to.

ROCERO: It's not just
about the surgery,

it's not just about changing
name and gender marker,

it's just really
the constant journey

of affirming the person
that you truly are.

And that also applies
for everybody,

not just for trans people.

♪

I think there's
a lot more people now

that are sharing their stories,
and that's important.

Any trans person sharing
and owning their narrative

in a very empowering way

is changing a person's mind

somewhere all over the world.

VU: Bye.

NARRATOR:
These very personal stories

are working to reshape
mainstream perceptions

of who trans people are

and how they can contribute
to society.

And the effects
can be seen today.

On June 30, 2016,

the United States became
the 19th nation in the world

to allow trans individuals
to serve in the military.

ASHTON CARTER: I'm announcing
today that we're ending the ban

on transgender Americans
in the United States military.

Effective immediately,
transgender Americans

may serve openly, and they can
no longer be discharged

or otherwise separated
from the military

just for being transgender.

Going forward, we will apply

the same general principles,
standards, and procedures

to transgender service members
as we do to all service members.

NARRATOR: For an institution
like the US military

to accept people
on their own terms

is a huge step forward.

PARAMOR:
I feel like as a country

we're headed
in the right direction

for trans acceptance
and positive visibility.

And I think the more visible
we become and are,

the better things
are going to be.

NARRATOR: The very idea of
normal is constantly evolving.

What was once narrowly defined
by Western culture has grown

to include individuals, genders,
and sexual practices

that the mainstream
didn't acknowledge

just a few short years ago.

The new normal
that we're headed toward

is a world that accepts everyone
for who they believe they are

and how they want to be seen.

STEA: The more we talk
about this,

the more we understand
that this is normal,

we are normal, you are normal.

JAMES:
What we're starting to see

is the possibility for people
to be more themselves,

and that's the promise
of the future.

COHEN: I think the world
is becoming a different place.

Categories are being
broken down.

As this younger generation
grows,

it's only gonna get better

and people are only going to be
free to love whoever they want.

CHARLES: The truth is,
we are one thing,

we're not separate
from one another.

It just looks that way.

Don't be fooled.

Don't get it twisted.

If you do, baby, you're
just playing yourself.

[laughs]