Several campus advocacy organizations opened up a dialogue about gender-identification issues on Thursday night on the Tempe campus.

A group of nearly 40 students and faculty watched “Boy I Am,” a documentary that addresses the difference between gender identity and sexual identity. The group then discussed the film during an open forum intended to raise awareness and answer questions about the film’s themes.

The screening held at the Life Sciences building, was part of the Spring 2009 Transgender Film and Discussion Series, sponsored by, among other groups, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Coalition, and the English Club.

“Boy I Am,” created in 2006 in New York City, documents conversations with several people born as women who later make the transition to live as men and whose decision left them ostracized by the lesbian community.

James Baxter, a gender studies and painting senior who was on Thursday night’s discussion panel, said depictions of transgender and genderqueer communities are not often seen in the media. The film and following discussion provided a chance to open a dialogue about transgender themes and lifestyles on the Tempe campus.

“Basically, [we wanted to convey] that gender expression is something to consider,” Baxter said.

The film series is a continuation of efforts by event co-sponsor genderWHAT?!, a group Baxter cofounded last November that opens up dialogue about gender and awareness of the terminology used for defining nontraditional gender roles. Baxter, who identifies as genderqueer, defined the term as describing anyone who doesn’t identify as either male or female.

Baxter said the film and discussion series aims to clarify the often-confused differences between issues of gender orientation, how a person views his or her own gender identity, and sexual orientation, which relates to one’s sense of social identity in terms of emotional or romantic attraction.

“People conflating gender with sexuality, without tools to differentiate between the two, they look at [gender identity and sexual identity] the same way,” Baxter said.

Thursday’s film and discussion hopefully engaged the audience in a positive reaction to the unique issues of transgender and genderqueer individuals, Baxter said. Their concerns have been “invisibilized” to the point that a free dialogue has not been opened, according to Baxter, and most people lack the emotional tools to address these issues.

“It’s not like we’ve had these discussions [on campus] before,” Baxter said. “They haven’t even been brought up.”

Elizabeth McNeil, director of undergraduate academic services for ASU’s English department, said the panel discussions after the films have been key to creating this dialogue, because simply watching a movie lacks the emotional impact of a room of people sharing their personal experiences.

“The film is a jumping point, really, for the community to talk about relevant issues,” said McNeil, who moderated Thursday’s discussion.

Opening the campus to the themes raised by transgender and genderqueer films is an effort to promote a more inclusive way of thinking about gender roles, she said.

“There’s such great, creative, transgender films, and we wanted to share [and discuss them] because it is an understudied, underacknowledged area of human existence,” McNeil said.

The Transgender Film and Discussion Series is necessary to the ASU community, she said, to help both students and faculty break down barriers and confront the emotional and physical obstacles that transgender individuals must face “every time they walk out the door.”

GenderWHAT?! co-director Joshua Judd, a philosophy freshman, said the series is important in clarifying these issues and raising awareness about the consequences of societal ignorance.

“Our goal is [to] … whatever the opposite of ‘muddy up the waters’ is,” Judd said.

Reach the reporter at trabens@asu.edu.