"A story of familial love between a butch mother and her feminine son, Pink Boy follows BJ and her son Jeffrey as they both learn to embrace his inner princess.” “A story of the unconditional love of family and parents who recognize the importance of creating a safe space for their son to live out his truth.” A convincing argument for acknowledging inborn gender preferences." Reviews and Festivals FEATURED ON VANITY FAIR When I met BJ, Sherrie, and Jeffrey (now Jessie), I felt that I had found the family that could best tell this story.” And how would that affect your identity and your confidence and how you approach the world? So I had this vision of an entire generation of kids someday growing up that way.
It made me start thinking about what would it be like if you grew up and you were never in the closet.
I was inspired to make this film when I started hearing stories of families whose children expressed their gender differences at the earliest age. Outtakes & Extended Interviews with Jeffrey's moms and school principalįILMMAKER'S STATEMENT: "As a gay man who grew up in a different era, I experienced what it was like to be in the closet. As Jeffrey increasingly wishes to be publicly identified as a girl called Jessie, her parents must learn both to accept and to navigate when it is safe for her in an often hostile environment. Thanks to supportive parents, we see her confidently move between masculine and feminine in dress-up time at school, a rodeo in Georgia, and the ultimate holiday, Halloween. Pink Boy’s verite-style allows the viewer to experience life through Jessie's eyes. They often live with daily threats of bullying and violence and are at high risk for depression and suicide as they reach their teens. These children often face widespread ignorance and shaming, sometimes from their own families.
They like to dress in girl’s clothing and play with girl toys, but still identify as boys. "Pink boys" have their unique challenges: they do not neatly fit into a single gender box, and instead create a space between genders, which this film explores. Mom BJ successfully avoided dresses and girls' toys her entire life and admits she initially had a hard time when her child expressed feminine interests. Six-year old Jeffrey (who now identifies as Jessie) likes nothing better than to put on a gown and dance for their two lesbian moms, who adopted Jessie expecting they would raise a boy. Of raising a young gender non-conforming child at the moment of transition growing up in a Pink Boy is a verite-style documentary profiling the challenges