‘Trans in Trumpland’ debuts February 25

The lives of transgender Americans were constantly under attack during the Trump presidency. Since his election in 2016, Trump’s administration worked to remove discrimination protections, ban trans members of the military, legalize discrimination sanctioned by religious beliefs, and the list goes on.

In order to shed light on the hostility that trans people faced during the last four years, openly trans director Tony Zosherafatain is releasing the docuseries Trans in Trumpland, which will be available for streaming on Topic starting February 25. 

“I knew I had to do something as a filmmaker to fight back against this type of hatred,” Zosherafatain told OutSmart in October. 

Watch the trailer for Trans in Trumpland below. 

Trans in Trumpland “uncovers the complexities of being transgender during the Trump administration era” by traveling to four different states that lack legal protections for trans people, according to the series’ website.

The series trailer, which was released in late January, introduces viewers to four trans subjects from four conservative states—Idaho, Texas, North Carolina, and Mississippi. Their stories represent the struggles that were heightened by Trump’s anti-LGBTQ policies—a woman who was detained by ICE alongside men, a young trans student fighting for bathroom access, a former member of the military, and a Black trans woman living in the South.  

One of those four individuals is Houston’s own Rebecca Chapa-Garcia, a Mexican-American trans woman who came to the U.S. legally as a child. Trans in Trumpland tells Chapa-Garcia’s story of being detained for an expired visa by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) several times during Trump’s presidency. 

Her story, while rooted in the nation’s broken immigration system, is one she hopes can inspire anyone who is facing hatred.

“I feel like this [docuseries] is going to be very educational,” Chapa-Garcia said. “We, as trans people, exist, and we are not going anywhere. More than anything, I hope it will educate people and show them that this administration [was] not the best for us.”

Watch Trans in Trumpland on the streaming service Topic and its carriers: Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Android, and Amazon Prime. For more information, visit transintrumpland.com.

This article appears in the February 2021 edition of OutSmart magazine.

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