On March 11, Manual’s Gay/Straight/Transgender Alliance (GSTA) met in Ms. Christie Causey’s room to watch the HBO movie Normal.

The 2003 drama, starring Tom Wilkinson as the main character and featuring Hayden Panettiere, is about a man who suffers from gender identity disorder, meaning he does not associate with his sex and receives a sex change. It revolves around his personal conflict with his family in dealing with the change.

GSTA has had similar events like this in the past, such as watching the movie Rent, which deals with issues such as AIDS.

Lilia Conklin (10), who said she already had a lot of respect for transgender people, thought the movie still made her see their life in another way. “I liked the movie, and it made me see how hard it is to be transgender, especially when one has already a firmly established family life–in this case conservative–and when others refuse to see someone as they want to be seen,” Conklin said.

Davis Hale (11) feels the movie was appropriate because of the increase of transgender students in the school. “Recently we have had some people come out as being transgender,” Hale said. “I don’t think it really changed any of my views on trans stuff, and I can’t speak for others who saw it. I think the story was fictional, but it was still nice to hear the story in the movie.”