Vlada Knowlton’s The Most Dangerous Year

National Pride Month may be over, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still celebrate. In honor of this year’s Pride season, Here Tv, American’s first and largest LGBTQ video channel, added an exclusive selection of LGBTQ programming, documentaries, and films to their website, here.tv.

With the recent protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, social justice is at the forefront of everyone’s mind, and Here TV wants to highlight the intersectionality of the LGBTQ community with so many others.

One of the documentaries now available for viewing is Vlada Knowlton’s The Most Dangerous Year. Focusing on 2016’s dark waves of anti-transgender bathroom bills, Knowlton captured the ensuing civil rights battle from the perspective of a small group of embattled parents as they band together to fight these proposed laws that would strip away the rights of transgender children. Being one of these parents, the mother of a five-year-old transgender daughter, Knowlton presents an intimate portrait of her own struggle to protect her child from ignorance and fear.

OUT FRONT had the pleasure of chatting more with Knowlton about the film and its significance. Hi, Vlada! Thank you for taking the time to chat with me about your documentary The Most Dangerous Year. How exciting is it that your film is streaming on Here TV to celebrate this year’s Pride season and social justice?
It’s very exciting! I am so happy and grateful that Here TV started its streaming during Pride 2020, and it is great to see it join so many other fantastic, LGBTQ films during this important time. When I first shot this film in 2016, our fight against anti-trans legislation was just beginning, and I had no idea how long it would last. We were still fighting when it premiered in film festivals in 2018, and we were still fighting when it had its theatrical premiere in 2019. Today, as we all know, the fight is just as dangerous and getting even more intense all around the world. I am sad to say that this film is just as relevant and just as necessary to watch today as it was when it first came out.

This film is making such a significant impact. What inspired you to create it?
My daughter was the reason that the fight against anti-trans legislation was salient and urgent for me, but my friend Aidan Key was the impetus for starting to film everything. He asked me in late 2015 if I would consider filming what was about to happen in 2016 because he knew the dark cloud of anti-trans backlash was approaching. He initially was just asking if I would film his work in the school districts. I told him that I would start filming and see where that would lead me, that I would have to find my own story in whatever was happening. The story I ended up finding and making into a movie was the political one.

You stated that you originally had no intention to ever make a film about this topic because it was so personal and close to the bone, and you felt like you couldn’t do it justice. What changed your mind?
I think the life-or-death stakes changed my mind. At the beginning of 2016, it became clear that the right-wing, anti-LGBTQ extremists, who were very influential with the Republican party, were launching a deadly attack against trans people. Organizations like “Alliance Defending Freedom” were creating a campaign of copy/paste state-level legislation aimed at taking away basic human and civil rights from trans people, and the general public was completely unaware of this.

The public also did not really seem to care all that much, even if they knew, because there was so much misinformation and transphobia out there. At this point, it became a matter of fighting for innocent people’s lives, including my own daughter’s life. My own fears and concerns ceased to matter once I saw what kind of horrific political attacks were on the horizon. The only thing I could think was, “If I don’t make this film, who will?”

When did you and your husband begin to discover that your youngest child was transgender? What were some of the signs, and how did you approach this as a family?
My daughter was always the same person; she was always herself. As a toddler, when we were still assuming that she was a boy, it was clear that she was very different from her older brother. She didn’t demonstrate any interest whatsoever in the same toys and activities that her older brother, a cisgender boy, loved at her age. In fact, she was a lot more interested in the types of things her older sister loved to do at her age.

But, that didn’t make us question her gender. I mean, boys can express interest in “traditionally feminine” activities, and girls can express interest in “traditionally masculine” activities, and we knew that, so it didn’t really worry us. It wasn’t until she began, at around age 3 and-a-half, to verbally express her distress about being called a boy and began to tell us that she was a girl inside that we started going through the journey of understanding she was transgender.

This wasn’t an overnight thing. We didn’t immediately understand and accept her narrative. It took at least a year, maybe a bit more, for me and my husband to finally accept her for who she was. And that’s, of course, a tragic thing in and of itself—that it took us so long. But, we had so little accurate information and knew so little about the topic.

This was 2014, and most of the information on the web about trans kids was still very flawed and misleading. Thankfully, there is a lot more accurate and helpful information available for parents of trans kids today. So, we had to rely on our own gut instincts as parents. It became clear after several months that she was extremely unhappy living her life as a boy, and it wasn’t getting any better.

In fact, it continued to get worse. Her sense of her own gender identity was becoming firmer and clearer as time passed, and her sadness and anguish at not being seen as a girl was also gaining strength. By the time she was 4 and-a-half, her father and I had to face the fact that if we didn’t embrace her true identity and allow her to socially transition, we would only be doing her more harm as time went on.

It wasn’t very difficult for her brother and sister to understand her gender identity. In fact, I think it was easier for them than it was for me and my husband. So, we all took that leap together. She changed her name, her pronouns, and her clothes. That’s all it took, and almost overnight, instead of a sullen, depressed little boy, we had a happy, joyful little girl. It was so simple in the end: just let her be herself. And she has never looked back. Once the anti-trans bathroom bills started to circulate, what was going through your mind? How did the community react as a whole?
Well, it was a shock, and I was horrified. I knew there was no valid justification for these bills, that it was all a fear-mongering campaign. The same can be said of the current anti-trans bills dealing with sports and youth healthcare. I don’t know what else to say about that. Imagine how it would feel if you or someone you loved became a target of a bigoted campaign to dehumanize people, a campaign to take away your value, your legitimacy, your existence as a human being.

I can’t speak for an entire community; in fact, I’m not sure what that community is comprised of. Trans people and their families are just human beings, and they are as diverse as the rest of the human population. I can only assume everyone else who either knew a trans person or was trans themselves was as horrified as I was.

Has your daughter seen the film? If so, what does she think of it, and does she understand its importance?
Yes, she has seen it several times. She likes it! Though I think she’s probably pretty bored with it by now [laughs]. It’s in her past, and she has moved on to more interesting things like Roblox and Minecraft.

Yes, I think she did and does understand its importance. She understood that we were fighting for the rights of all people like her, and that our family’s part is just a small part in the larger fight for human rights that is happening all over the world. I think that growing up as a trans child who doesn’t have to hide or be ashamed of who she is helps give her the courage to stand up for her rights and to understand how important it is to help other kids like her have the same freedom and security to live their lives as themselves.

Was it difficult trying to balance being the mother of a transgender child, a vocal ally to the trans community, and a documentary filmmaker?
Yes, it was difficult. As a parent, your first instinct is to shield and protect your child and your family. If I was only acting as a mother, perhaps I would never have made this film. As a human being living in this time and this society, I knew that we all have to step up and start doing whatever we can to fight against this awful wave of bigotry and hate. The skill set I could offer this fight was my filmmaking, and my filmmaking, in turn, made me into a vocal ally to the trans community.

Having to juggle the filmmaker role and the parent role was a huge challenge. As a mother of a trans child, I didn’t want to be in the same buildings, let alone the same rooms, as the people who were trying to take away my daughter’s human and civil rights, but as a filmmaker, I needed to not only to be in the same rooms with them, I needed to interview them and speak with them directly. I think it took all the willpower I’ve ever possessed to do that and do it in a professional manner.

Have you always had a passion for filmmaking?
Yes, I think so, but I never considered it a possibility for myself growing up. I first went into academia, got a Ph.D., then transitioned to working in the tech industry. It wasn’t until my late 30s when I found myself at a point in my life when I felt that I had the freedom to attempt to be the person I always secretly wanted to be—a filmmaker. So, that’s when I finally started down that path. Better late than never.How has The Most Dangerous Year been received by audiences, and what do you hope they take away from it?
The audience reception has been overwhelmingly positive. I have taken this film all around the country, to both red and blue states, and the feedback at every screening has been great. It had great critical reviews and made it into a few ‘Best of 2019’ lists, and all of that was, of course, very gratifying.

However, the best part for me was when I met people at the screenings who were confused about the topic before watching the film and who came up to me afterwards to say, “Now I understand.” I made this film mainly to help educate the public. So, that’s what I hope this film does in the end. I hope that it helps educate people about the reality of what it means for a person to be born transgender, and that it helps educate people about the very simple fact that trans people are part of the natural diversity of the human race and deserve all the same rights, freedoms and protections as all other human beings.

I also think it is extremely important right now, during the sorely needed Black Lives Matter movement, to help in any way we can to support it. So, I hope that in supporting the rights of trans people, this film also helps to offer people the understanding they need to fight for the rights and protections of Black, trans people.

And what have you personally taken away from this experience?
I think the biggest lesson I am taking away from this experience is that I should always face my fears head-on and always trust my gut instincts.

What is your number-one piece of advice to parents of trans children?
Listen to your children; respect your children; believe your children.

Did you encounter any major challenges throughout production?
The whole thing was a major challenge. I didn’t really have any pre-production time. I just picked up my camera and started shooting. Most of production was just me and my DP, Lulu Gargiulo, helping me whenever she could. I didn’t have any funding lined up, so it was mostly self-funded.

Since a lot of the shooting involved getting into government legislative and court hearings, I had to do some creative “talking my way into” these places. I still can’t believe I was able to talk my way into some of the hearings and forums I got into. I also never really knew when something important was going to happen with regard to the ballot initiative, so I just kept my camera equipment in my car for, like, four months straight. That’s how I happened to get the shots I got of the signature gatherers at the strawberry festival.

It was such a crazy and scary time for us. It was just round-the-clock stress and anxiety. Not that it’s gotten any better today. We’re still in that space and will remain there until the Trump administration is gone. But anyway, looking back, I really can’t believe I got some of the shots that I got. I think there must have been a lot of serendipity involved. Are there currently any anti-LGBTQ legislation bills in the state of Washington that you are fighting against?
Luckily, the Washington state legislature is majority Democrat, but yes, there have been some anti-trans bills proposed this year. I wasn’t worried because I knew they wouldn’t make it past committee. The more dangerous bills have been going around states with majority Republican legislatures, and they have been mostly focusing on taking away the rights of trans people to participate in sports and the rights of trans children to access the healthcare they need.

Just next door to us in Idaho, they passed two ugly, discriminatory bills into law, one that bans trans kids from playing sports according to their gender identity and one that bans gender changes on birth certificates. Like other anti-trans bills, those types of bills are based on fear-mongering and misinformation rather than on facts and reality. However, I know Idaho is getting sued for these unconstitutional laws, and I’m hopeful that just like in other areas of discrimination, justice will prevail in these areas as well.

What’s next for you? Are there any other upcoming projects we should be on the lookout for?
I am working on a narrative feature, something I’ve been wanting to do since I started working on filmmaking. It’s a romantic comedy. I can’t shoot it this year because of the pandemic, but I am hoping to shoot it next summer. I guess I should add the caveat that it also depends on what happens on November 3.

For more information, visit themostdangerousyear.com. To stay up-to-date with Knowlton, follow her on Twitter and Instagram.