In wake of the CW network developing a new show about the life of a transgender teenager, HuffPost Live sat down with several teens who identify as transgender last week to discuss their experiences.
One transgender teenager, Ryan Cassata, stressed the importance of educating one's parents about transgender issues as crucial to gaining a system of familial support for one's gender identity.
Phoenix Schneider, Project Manager at Contact USA, highlighted the need to portray a diverse range of transgender experiences that don't fixate on violence or trauma:
I think it's really important to acknowledge that there is a huge transgender community. There is a diverse range of gender identities and there are folks that don't identify exclusively as male or female -- man or woman. I think it's really important to portray this in the media and have positive representation as well. It's certainly important to share and educate folks around the reality -- the real experience of a trans, genderqueer, non-binary person. Certainly there is more than just negative --there's so many positive experiences and I think it's so important to make sure that we're including those experiences as well in the media."
Check out the clip above for more from these inspirational trans teens and to watch the full segment head here.
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