My Transsexual Summer is a British documentary-style reality series about seven transgender people in different stages of transition. For five weekends in the summer of 2011, they stay together in a large holiday home in Bedfordshire, where they meet and help each other with some of the struggles that transgender people face. Between these weekend retreats, they go back to their lives and real-world challenges.
In the early 2010s, Channel 4 resolved to improve the accuracy and depth of their representation of transgender people. My Transsexual Summer was the first transgender programme they created after making this resolution. Channel 4 broadcast the series in November 2011. It was rebroadcast in the UK on More4 in 2012, and on ABC2 in Australia in 2013. Also in 2013, two of the show's participants themselves started making documentary short films and videos about being transgender.
Background
In April 2010, non-profit organisation Trans Media Watch published a study called "How Transgender People Experience the Media", which found that there is "an endemic problem with negative and inaccurate representations [of transgender people in British media stories], and observed that this leads to considerable real-life suffering".
The following September, the Westminster Media Forum hosted a keynote seminar on the representation of LGBT people in British mass media. Two speakers in particular addressed the subject of transgender representation: Stuart Cosgrove, Director of Creative Diversity at Channel 4; and Tim Davie, chairperson of the BBC Working Group on Portrayal and Inclusion of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Audiences. They noted a general absence of transgender people in British broadcasting, and reported that "transgender storylines… are frequently lacking in breadth and substance." In a later interview, Cosgrove added that there are "high levels of inaccuracy" in British media reports about transgender people.
In an effort to improve this situation, Trans Media Watch drafted and published a memorandum of understanding for media companies: signatories of the memorandum agree to "work toward… increasing positive, well-informed representations of transgender people in the media." In March 2011, Channel 4 became the first company to sign the memorandum. "Our editorial independence always come first; but it is part of our remit to reflect the diversity of the UK", said Cosgrove.
After signing, Channel 4 engaged journalist/activist Paris Lees of Trans Media Watch to be a production consultant for the show; Lees served as consultant for the duration of production.
Production
Channel 4 gave the programme the working title Girls Will Be Boys and Boys Will Be Girls. Mark Raphael, the commissioning editor for documentaries, contracted a British production company called Twenty Twenty Productions to make the series. Twenty Twenty was at the time a subsidiary of Shed Media. Former commissioning editor for documentaries Meredith Chambers served as executive producer for Channel 4, and Sam Whittaker was executive producer for Twenty Twenty. The series producer and director was Helen Richards.
Filming began several weeks after the signing of the memorandum, and continued over a period of four months. My Transsexual Summer aired on Channel 4 in November 2011.
Participants
The participants in the programme are four trans women and three trans men from different parts of England. They range in age from 22 to 52; five of the participants are under 30.