Channel 4 (UK) Documentaries

My Trans American Road Trip (2016x82)

Air date: Nov 02, 2016

Former Parachute Regiment officer and current affairs foreign correspondent Abigail Austen travels to America, on the eve of the 2016 US Presidential Election, to discover why transgender rights have become such a crucial electoral battleground this year. At the heart of the matter is North Carolina, a pivotal swing state that was criticised earlier this year for passing local legislation that forced transgender people to use public toilets corresponding to the gender recorded on their birth certificate. The resulting backlash forced the Obama administration to sue North Carolina, and provoked a constitutional crisis in a state Republican candidate Donald Trump and his Democrat rival Hillary Clinton are both keen to win. As a trans-woman herself, Abigail explores how what has been a highly political problem can become desperately personal.