{"id":48913,"date":"2019-06-04T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-04T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/bathroom-bills-documentary-coming-to-town-features-former-juneauite\/"},"modified":"2019-06-04T08:55:22","modified_gmt":"2019-06-04T16:55:22","slug":"bathroom-bills-documentary-coming-to-town-features-former-juneauite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/bathroom-bills-documentary-coming-to-town-features-former-juneauite\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Bathroom bills&#8217; documentary coming to town features former Juneauite"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t<p>Aidan Key knew history was being made, but he didn&rsquo;t see anyone recording it.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>So as bills that would restrict which bathrooms transgender people were allowed to use were discussed in Washington state back in 2016, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/aidan-key-gender_n_5b26bd67e4b0783ae12a3e65?guccounter=1&#038;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&#038;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAEqDzZTexIIHPqmkGB9LnmK58mHU9jinbSTpZ2IqkUUvPitByGKBMrsQhnl9QlDHd_OBvlfrBdXlrkvTZKk6aMIxFSW57DMIveprhhP6KrqUZAOgzpmwffzTgiuPH3LloqhYfYfowhRftReG8z8FHuwwBJ9FoRrbGt8zsRtb2ACY\" target=\"_blank\">Key &mdash; an author, speaker and community organizer<\/a> who grew up in Juneau and navigated his own transition &mdash; reached out to filmmaker Vlada Knowlton to capture some footage of a Snohomish School District meeting.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>&ldquo;I just felt that history is happening all around me,&rdquo; Key said in a phone interview. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just moment by moment every day, this huge pivotal moment is happening in time and nobody&rsquo;s capturing it.&rdquo;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Knowlton filming the meeting was the first step toward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themostdangerousyear.com\/#trailer\" target=\"_blank\">&ldquo;The Most Dangerous Year,&rdquo;<\/a> a documentary about transgender children and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncsl.org\/research\/education\/-bathroom-bill-legislative-tracking635951130.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">&ldquo;bathroom bills<\/a>&rdquo; that Key is bringing Juneau Thursday evening.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"480\" height=\"270\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-InyFcsmeEg\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Despite attempts in more than 20 states, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.naspa.org\/rpi\/posts\/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-bathroom-bill-state-legislation-affecting-trans-ge\" target=\"_blank\">bathroom bills have largely failed to become law<\/a>. That includes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/identities\/2018\/4\/6\/17197910\/anchorage-alaska-transgender-proposition-1\" target=\"_blank\">Proposition 1 in Anchorage<\/a>, which was voted down in April 2018.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>In Juneau and Anchorage, there are ordinances that prohibits LGBTQ discrimination. A similar state bill has made slow progress, but has now twice made it out of committee.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p><ins>[<a href=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/lgbtq-equal-rights-bill-unlikely-to-advance-any-further-this-year\/\" target=\"_blank\">LGBTQ equal rights bill unlikely to advance any further this year<\/a>]<\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Key, who is director for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.genderdiversity.org\" target=\"_blank\">Gender Diversity<\/a>, a nonprofit that increased awareness and understanding of gender diversity in children, said he&rsquo;s proud to share the documentary and his story with Juneau.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>&ldquo;I love my work,&rdquo; Key said. &ldquo;I love bringing it home. I want to share it with the people I grew up with because they&rsquo;re who I grew up with. Even with them, there&rsquo;s questions and curiosity and so forth, and they&rsquo;re proving to me a theory that I have in life, which is that people are people. They have questions about things they don&rsquo;t know much about.&rdquo;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>While the film is not about Key&rsquo;s journey, he said his transition from Bonnie Bowers to Aidan Key is integral to its existence.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-attachment in-story\"><a href='https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/17068105_web1_Attach37922_20190531_211001.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\" src=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/17068105_web1_Attach37922_20190531_211001.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"Brenda Bowers and Bonnie Bowers, now Aidan Key, grew up as identical twins. In the late 1990s, Key realized he intended to transition to male. (Courtesy Photo | Brenda Bowers)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/17068105_web1_Attach37922_20190531_211001.jpg 320w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/17068105_web1_Attach37922_20190531_211001-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1199px) 98vw, 320px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"p-exclude\">Brenda Bowers and Bonnie Bowers, now Aidan Key, grew up as identical twins. In the late 1990s, Key realized he intended to transition to male. (Courtesy Photo | Brenda Bowers)<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t<p>&ldquo;If I didn&rsquo;t have this personal journey, I wouldn&rsquo;t be chatting with you today,&rdquo; Key said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>He said he hopes &ldquo;The Most Dangerous Year&rdquo; and a planned question-and-answer session after help illustrate the humanity at the heart of the documentary.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>&ldquo;My hope is that in all the various people featured in the film that they recognize themselves, they recognize their neighbor,&rdquo; Key said. &ldquo;What I hope that they really get is how challenging and complex this issue is to have it touch someone&rsquo;s life.&rdquo;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>That challenge extends to family, friends, loved ones and supporters of transgender people, Key said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Brenda Bowers, Key&rsquo;s twin sister who still lives in Juneau, told the Empire about what it was like in 1998 when she found out her twin sister would become her brother.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-attachment in-story\"><a href='https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/17068105_web1_DSC_5851.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1365\" src=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/17068105_web1_DSC_5851.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"Brenda Bowers holds up a photo of herself and her then-sister Bonnie at Brenda&#146;s Juneau home on May 31, 2019. (Ben Hohenstatt | Juneau Empire)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/17068105_web1_DSC_5851.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/17068105_web1_DSC_5851-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/17068105_web1_DSC_5851-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/17068105_web1_DSC_5851-640x427.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/17068105_web1_DSC_5851-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/17068105_web1_DSC_5851-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1199px) 98vw, 1200px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"p-exclude\">Brenda Bowers holds up a photo of herself and her then-sister Bonnie at Brenda&rsquo;s Juneau home on May 31, 2019. (Ben Hohenstatt | Juneau Empire)<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t<p>&ldquo;She called me from Seattle and said, &lsquo;I want to come see you, I have something I need to talk to you about,&rdquo; Bowers said. &ldquo;Well, that&rsquo;s very, very unusual. We talk about everything all the time. To say, &lsquo;I need to be there to talk to you in person scared the crap out of me. I had to wait for the flight to happen. I kind of tried to run through the possibilities. I landed on cancer or some serious health issue, and I was utterly terrified.&rdquo;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>However, as soon as Key and Bowers were together, those fears quickly dissipated. When Key arrived in Juneau, he quickly told Bowers what was happening, even if Bowers had a tough time comprehending.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-attachment in-story\"><a href='https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/17068105_web1_Attach37919_20190531_210417.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/17068105_web1_Attach37919_20190531_210417.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"Courtesy Photo&lt;strong&gt; &lt;\/strong&gt;| &lt;strong&gt;Brenda Bowers&lt;\/strong&gt;                                Brenda Bowers and Bonnie Bowers, now Aidan Key, grew up as identical twins. In the late &#146;90s, Key realized he intended to transition to male. He now lives in Seattle and is an author, speaker and community organizer.\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/17068105_web1_Attach37919_20190531_210417.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/17068105_web1_Attach37919_20190531_210417-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/17068105_web1_Attach37919_20190531_210417-640x480.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1199px) 98vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"p-exclude\">Courtesy Photo | Brenda Bowers\n                                Brenda Bowers and Bonnie Bowers, now Aidan Key, grew up as identical twins. In the late &rsquo;90s, Key realized he intended to transition to male. He now lives in Seattle and is an author, speaker and community organizer.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t<p>&ldquo;Transition wasn&rsquo;t a word ever used in that kind of context that I knew of,&rdquo; Bowers said. &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t understand that phrase. There was no way to put it together. There was no language back then. My thought back then was, &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t know what this is, but I&rsquo;m going on this journey with you. There&rsquo;s nothing that&rsquo;s going to tear me away from my sibling.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-attachment small in-story\"><a href='https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/17068105_web1_Attach37918_20190531_210417.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/17068105_web1_Attach37918_20190531_210417.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"Courtesy Photo&lt;strong&gt; &lt;\/strong&gt;| &lt;strong&gt;Brenda Bowers&lt;\/strong&gt;                                Brenda Bowers stands with her brother Aidan Key, who is one of the central figures in the documentary &#147;The Most Dangerous Year.&#148;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/17068105_web1_Attach37918_20190531_210417.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/17068105_web1_Attach37918_20190531_210417-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1199px) 98vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"p-exclude\">Courtesy Photo | Brenda Bowers\n                                Brenda Bowers stands with her brother Aidan Key, who is one of the central figures in the documentary &ldquo;The Most Dangerous Year.&rdquo; <\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t<p>Behaving with compassion and respect is important for people hoping to support a transitioning friend, family member or loved one to have, Key said. A willingness to learn is important, too.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>He said those same qualities are also important when discussing transgender issues, such as the bathroom bills in &ldquo;The Most Dangerous Year.&rdquo;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p><ins>[<a href=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/get-ready-for-pride-2019\/\" target=\"_blank\">Get ready for Pride 2019<\/a>]<\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>&ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t step into that, you&rsquo;re just relying on conjecture and uninformed opinions,&rdquo; Key said. &ldquo;Why would we do that with something that is so critical? We&rsquo;ve got children whose lives are at stake here, and we have a lot of people with a lot of opinions.&rdquo;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Key said showing &ldquo;The Most Dangerous Year&rdquo; around the country and talking to people from a variety of backgrounds has revealed how many people are approaching transgender issues with open minds and good intentions.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Bowers and Key said generally, the average person&rsquo;s understanding of gender identity and expression is superior to where Bowers was at in 1998.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Key said that&rsquo;s one sign that we&rsquo;re at an important point on the transgender civil rights timeline that he hopes to see continue forward.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p><ins>[<a href=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/learn-about-the-us-southwest-border-from-someone-you-probably-know\/\" target=\"_blank\">Learn about the Southwest border from someone you know<\/a><\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>&ldquo;We have a pretty critical moment in time where we can open our hearts and open our ears and step in and learn and put things on the table,&rdquo; Key said. &ldquo;That moment in time, in respect to this issue, is a moment in time where our world is more polarized in many ways. Where are we in this moment in time? We&rsquo;re at a pretty critical place. We could tip, and I want us to tip in a way where we come back together. My hope is that we can continue to find our hearts in this process.&rdquo;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p><strong>Know &#038; Go<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p><strong>What: <\/strong>&ldquo;The Most Dangerous Year&rdquo; screening and discussion<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p><strong>When: <\/strong>6:30 p.m., Thursday, June 6<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p><strong>Where: <\/strong>University of Alaska Southeast Egan Library, 11120 Glacier Highway<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p><strong>Admission: <\/strong>Admission is free<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p><strong>Need someone to talk to?<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>There is a local transgender support group that meets monthly. Those interested can contact Margie Thomson at 723-9574.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p><hr \/><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p><b>\u2022 Contact arts and culture reporter Ben Hohenstatt at (907)523-2243 or bhohenstatt@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BenHohenstatt.<\/b><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p><hr \/><\/p>\n\t\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>History was being made, but he didn&rsquo;t see anyone recording it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":474,"featured_media":48914,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":9,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4],"tags":[74,73,548,319],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-48913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-news","tag-arts-and-culture","tag-ccw","tag-lgbtq","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/474"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48913"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=48913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}