Sex Change Hospital Still Operating

CBS just got around to doing a story about Dr Marci Bowers and Trinidad, Colorado, known globally as the "sex-change capital of the world," on its most recent CBS Sunday Morning show. It was two years ago that the World of Wonder crew went to Trinidad to shoot its acclaimed six-part Sex Change Hospital docuseries, which aired in 2007 on Channel 4 in the UK, and subsequently on TV in Sweden and Brazil. Those who bemoaned its absence from TV in the US can take heart now that it's set to air in the country where it's set. Beginning October 14, Sex Change Hospital will air at 11PM on WEtv. (Sex Change Hospital on MySpace; t/y Moye for the heads-up)

Transmission

Jim Howley, from World of Wonder's Sex Change Hospital and Transamerican Love Story, talks to the hosts of Trans-Ponder.com about reality TV, getting kicked off MySpace, among other topics. (Listen here or here)

Girls Who Are Boys, Who Like Boys To Be Girls

Jim Howley, one of the eight bachelors competing for Calpernia Addams' affections on Monday night's new dating series Transamerican Love Story, phoned into the World of Wonder offices to dish the dirt on what it was like to be 'outed' as a transgendered man himself, in the first twenty minutes of the premiere episode no less. Eagle-eyed viewers, however, may remember Jim previously disclosing his not-so-secret gender switch on another WOW production: Sex Change Hospital. Listen to Jim's voicemail here, and visit Jim's MySpace here.

FYI

Sex Change Hospital, the WOW six-part series set in Trinidad, Colorado (above), proud to call itself the Sex Change Capital of the World, has a comprehensive MySpace page now. Check it out.

The Doctor Is On

On today's Oprah, the topic is "Born in the Wrong Body," and she has as one of her guests Dr Marci Bowers, the surgeon (and herself a transgender) on WOW's six-part docuseries, Sex Change Hospital, currently running on Channel 4 in the UK. In this clip from the series, we see Vicki, two days after genital reassignment surgery, checking out the results.

Notes on Sex Change

Excerpt from a review of WOW's Sex Change Hospital docuseries in the UK, from I'm the Other Dave:

"Everyone has a right to be an individual and comfortable in their own body. Some folk, however, like those on 'Sex Change Hospital', just abuse the bloody privilege. If I were to say that two grown men, last eve, removed their dinkles, became women, and then started a lesbian affair, would you believe me? Well, hopefully, yes. This is the 21st century, after all, you blasted prudes! If I were to tell you that the very same two lesbian trans-genders teamed up as a 'Cagney and Lacey' style duo in the weekend to fight crime, would you still have faith in my musings? In all honesty, I don't even believe myself. Unfortunately, 'Sex Change' hospital is a reality. It is a serious show what deals with the cold, hard facts of this world in which we live. There are two dyke, balless muscle Marys molesting innocent criminals in the U.S. as we speak. The mind certainly boggles."

"A Great Big Pile of Happiness"

Two positive reports on WOW's Sex Change Hospital. One from a viewer who watched the six-episode television series in the UK and found it "awfully happy," and another who saw the stand-alone episode at Frameline 31 in San Francisco and who happens to be a friend of one of the subjects, yet without bias thought it was "probably the best 'sex change' film I'd ever seen."

If a Woodstock Could Stock Wood

Tired of biting his nails down to the bone worrying about the Sex Change Hospital screening later in the day, Chris McKim headed down to San Francisco's Delores Park to meet up with Thairin Smothers and Andrew Schneider and Kristin Rasmussen and the rest of the WOW crew, where he took these great shots of the assembled lesbians and the people who love them, gathered for the pre-Gay Pride Dyke March festivities.

– Steven Corfe

We Wuz Framelined!

Steven Corfe writes:

This weekend was the closing weekend of the Frameline LGBT Film Festival, and a group of WOWers traveled up to San Francisco to support the screening of our film Sex Change Hospital and partake in the coinciding Gay Pride activities. SCH screened Saturday afternoon at the Roxie, and both of the subjects featured in the first episode, Vicki Estrada and Jim Howley, were there with family and friends. Not an easy feat for Vicki, one would imagine, sitting in a room with friends and strangers watching your penis being surgically transformed into a vagina on a 40-foot screen. As Jim said during the Q&A that followed, he usually has dinner bought for him before he lets people see him naked. But the subjects' bravery was the common theme of the post-screening chat, along with praise for director Chris McKim for striking a balance between the science of gender reassignment and the emotional journey of the people undergoing it. I sat behind Vicki, and was touched to see her daughter (from Vicki's earlier marriage, when she was Steve) hugging her during the painful parts of the film.

Snap!

Steven Corfe took this photo while passing through Brookings, Oregon, over Memorial Day weekend. On a related note, Sex Change Hospital airs tonight on More4 at 10PM in the UK. The docu-series also screens at the Frameline LGBT Film Festival in San Francisco on Saturday, June 23rd. Tickets available here.

Hot Top Pics

See more at World of Wonder.

Here's the brand-new, red-hot "Starrbooty" video from RuPaul's sexploitation movie Starrbooty, about which Michael Lumpkin, director of Frameline, the San Francisco gay and lesbian film festival, said yesterday is "probably the trashiest and nastiest movie we've ever shown." Which should draw an appropriately trashy and nasty audience once that quote gets around (so spread it). The quote comes from the same article that leads with a mention of Sex Change Hospital, the WOW documentary directed by Chris McKim, also screening at Frameline.

Grey Anatomy

A teaser trailer for Sex Change Hospital, WOW's awesome sex-part six-part series airing on More4 in the UK.

Transtastic!

On Ugly Betty, Daniel's brother is now his sister, at the LA Times, sports writer Mike Penner announced that he's soon to be Christine, and tonight on 20/20 Barbara Walters is hanging with transgender children. It seems like everything's coming up trans these days.

It all takes me back to last summer when I had my own genital reassignment surgery done. OK, that part's a lie. I did not have GRS, but it kinda felt like I did after spending six weeks in Trinidad, CO, "the sex change capital of the world," shooting WOW's new six-part series SEX CHANGE HOSPITAL. Hot on the coattails of TransGeneration, which helped usher in this age of all things trans, Sex Change Hospital follows 12 transmen and women as they have genital reassignment procedures at the hands of Dr Marci Bowers, who has gone through the transition process herself.

The series premieres in the UK May 23rd on MORE4, and the first episode will have its North American premiere at Frameline in San Francisco on Saturday, June 23, 2007. Stay tuned for more info!

– Chris McKim, director, Sex Change Hospital