The Switch family, from community to filmmaker.

It is still a subject that, for some, is ultimately difficult to address, drawing up feelings of confusion, misunderstanding, and sadly but often vitriol. Detractors, religious or otherwise, often ask the same question: Why would you ever want to change your gender?

The gender transition documentary Switch—set to be shown Friday, November 16 at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Long Beach—seeks to show the problems with asking that particular question. In fact, its focus is less on the direct experience of Nelson, a transgendered person, more than it is the community that surrounds him. After all, for many transgender people, nothing is necessarily changing for them, per se, more than something is simply being revealed. Who they are has always been true; this is just one step further to showcasing that truth.

What alters is the community attached to that person: their perceptions, their beliefs, their language and their love for understanding fellow humans—and that is precisely what Portland-based filmmaker and activist Brooks Nelson seeks to show.

These switches are often overwhelming. Altering the gender pronoun of someone you know, for example, forces you to realign thoughts of male and female identity along with illuminating the idea that, indeed, identity is not some stable, simple concept that one is always certain of. It is malleable and fallible, like our thoughts, and is open to many facades.

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Switch: A Community in Transition will be shown on November 16 at 7PM at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Long Beach, located at 5450 Atherton Street. Admission is free and childcare will be provided.