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Not Like Other Boys

Meet Rae—a warm, funny and engaging transgender teen who shares what it’s like to change genders as a high school student. Hear about Rae’s family and friends, fashion choices, the incident of the badly-plucked eyebrows, and how an accepting school has made all the difference.

Rae’s story is excerpted from “Straightlaced—How Gender’s Got Us All Tied Up”. “Straightlaced” was produced by GroundSpark as part of the Respect for All Project.

About Straightlaced

From girls confronting media messages about culture and body image to boys who are sexually active just to prove they aren’t gay, “Straightlaced” offers raw, emotional first-person accounts from a fascinating array of students about the toll that deeply held stereotypes and rigid gender policing have on all our lives.

With courage and unexpected humor, they open up their lives to the camera: choosing between “male” and “female” deodorant; deciding whether to go along with anti-gay taunts in the locker room; having the courage to take ballet; the double standard about being sexually active; avoiding the restroom so they won’t get beaten up; or mourning the suicide of a classmate. It quickly becomes clear that just about everything teens do is deeply impacted by our culture’s ideas about gender and sexuality.

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