NOTE – Krystal Summers is one of the actresses in the recently released indie film, Ticked-Off Trannies With Knives. The film opened in New York last weekend at the Tribeca Film Festival and has attracted its fair share of controversy by transgender groups as well as GLAAD. Tomorrow I’ll be posting a Video Story by director Israel Luna, as well as reviews of the film from the blog AKA William.

If you’re interested in being in a Video Story, just let me know and we’ll set up a time and place to meet.

Watch all the IFD Video Stories here.

For the transcript, Continue Reading.

Hi, my name is Krystal and I’m originally from Laurel, Mississippi. And once upon a time, I was a little boy. But I think a more accurate way of saying that is, I was a little girl trapped in a little boy’s body.

I remember I changed schools when I was in 6th grade. And the first day of school, the teacher took the whole class to the bathroom and you divide up and went to your respective bathrooms, and I of course went into the boys’ bathroom and the teacher ran in behind me and told me, “Oh, you’re in the wrong bathroom, you’re in the wrong bathroom.” And it was so embarrassing because all the kids were laughing at me.

The kids used to make fun of me at the swimming pool because I didn’t want to take my shirt off and all the other little boys would take their shirts off and go swimming. When they would play basketball and they would pick teams, there would be shirts and skins and I would not want to be on the skins team. And it was just little things like that, and I’ve been put in trash cans, I was shoved against my locker, the name calling, it’s just something I’d never want to relive again.

Growing up in a Southern Baptist family, I always knew they weren’t gonna accept me, changing from being a boy to a girl. That was something that was never gonna be acceptable to them. So I had to wait until I went to college. So the day I went to college–I graduated high school, left home immediately and went to college. My parents dropped me off at school at my first apartment and I went and got my first caboodle, bought a bunch of makeup, and I would just sit around in dresses and it was just a very happy time in my life. There weren’t a lot of instances from that point on that I ever dressed as a boy again. Except for, over the next year, year and a half, when I would go to my parents house, I would have to obviously. But once they found out, I didn’t talk to them for several years. They weren’t on-board with it. But I spent my entire life as a girl, and from that point on, I was a girl. And I do wanna add that my parents have started coming around. It’s taken almost 10, 11 years to come around but they’re finally starting to accept me for who I am. And that is just the cherry on top of the cake, you know, it’s just awesome.

I'm From Poway, CA - Video Story. [My Dad and I] got along better than we almost ever have. Part of that is because I gave him time to kind of transition with me. That they could ask me questions. That I wasn’t going to yell at them for calling me by my old name. I wasn’t going to get mad at them for referring to me as “she.” And that I was kind of being aware of their process as well. I think that helped a lot. That helped them and it actually helped me as well. For me, them coming to their own about who I was was a lot more important than me forcing who I was upon them.

I'm From New Haven, CT. About five years ago I got my chest surgery and as soon as I saw myself in the mirror my life just totally changed and I became an activist for my community and I work a lot with the youth. First I was a mentor and I said, “You know there’s gotta be more than this one trans kid who needs my help” so I started a youth group for trans kids between the ages of 14 and 17. And it’s amazing how when I’m sitting in a room with a kid and the kids like cryin’, “I’m cuttin’ myself. I don’t wanna be in school.” I’m like, “Dude, everything is okay. I was there.”

I'm From Norwich, CT. My best friend who was 29 unexpectedly passed away from a brain hemorrhage and that night I wanted to go to the gay bar to be myself and to be who I am. So that night I went out, went to the bar, and I decided I was going to use the men’s bathroom for the first time. This was a really scary, courageous step for me to take. It was my one little step forward. And unfortunately, this bouncer came in after me and said, “You’re in the wrong bathroom.” And with what just happened to my best friend and just what I was going through at the time, I just said, “No, I’m not.” And I wasn’t going to leave.