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Writer's pictureAshton Blyth

A deed-poll for the film

One of the latest developments with the film is the name. I've had the name Defining Moments of a Trans Experience in my head as a working title for over a year now for this project, but the more I've thought on it lately, I've realised how... limiting it becomes just from the title.


The title is often the first thing you hear/see of a film, followed by the poster, and a synopsis etc. If a person can already tell the film is not for them from the title, they aren't going to bother watching it. I don't want Defining Moments of a Trans Experience to seem as though it's only intended for trans-viewing just from the title, when it's a film I feel everybody could benefit from seeing.


My mum came up with the title Definitive Times, as not only were these my defining moments, but they also created some definitive times that would have created others' defining moments. I was part of Boys Brigade before Girls Association was even considered - no mention of it, no flag, no uniform for over another year, I would have been part of the reason they decided it was needed. I was the first transgender man to have egg freezing in Liverpool, where Warrington hospital had not done it before so said no, but Liverpool said yes. I would have created Definitive Times with these moments.


Liverpool's Tales from the city exhibition a few years ago to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act included a time-line of momentous events that had happened in Liverpool (and the UK as a whole) and when, such as: 1967 - UK's first pride march, 1985 - Brookside character Gordon Collins becomes the first gay character in a British soap opera, 1992 - WHO declassifies same-sex attraction as a mental illness, 1999 - Trans Day of Remembrance is founded, 2002 - Equal rights are granted to same-sex couples applying for adoption.


One of the things it didn't include was when Liverpool's first gay adoption happened - despite equal rights being granted to same-sex couples in 2002, Liverpool's first gay adoption didn't happen until 2009 - with two toddlers my mum and godmother looked after.


And so, it seems only fitting that the title is re-made...



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