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-a character who identifies as queer and sleeps with both men and women within the show (played by ellen page so you know it’s good)

-a trans woman who is played by a trans actor in flashbacks to when she was younger (not in the current times but oh well)

-a lesbian characters played by a korean-american lesbian actress

-two other lesbians/queer women (it’s not super specified)

-a trans man (who starts out identifying as straight, then bi, then gay) played by a latine nb trans actor

-four other gay men, one of whom is black, all played by gay men

-two asian-american siblings of unspecified sexualities

-plenty of drag queens

-four trans sex workers, all played by trans women (several being twoc)

-a fat butch lesbian that was only in one scene but absolutely stole my heart

-a deaf & gay moc played by an actual deaf & gay moc

part 1

Annika: This is so inspiring….!

Episode 29, there is a scene in the pool that is really emotional and intense…

(cut to druck clip)

Annika: What I found really beautiful was the “I love you”. The way he came back and was like I’m not saying this again. That was so real! This is how it is in real life, that’s what I feel like. What I wrote down is that you said you don’t want to listen to the same questions like, how do you piss, how do you have sex, and those are the two questions that everyone thinks of when they hear transgender, like, what does he have down there, how does he piss or have sex… But you just don’t ask that!

Lukas: But people really ask that. Even strangers who expect you to be open about it like, yeah… peeing… well, when I go to the man’s toilet I don’t go to the urinal but in the cabin.

Annika: Crazy. Some people think in the man’s toilet aren’t real cabins but how do men do their big business then? Think about it.

Lukas: It always depends on where you’re at with your transition. There are prostheses for example that are made especially for trans people, that health insurance covers if you have all the forms. And with that you can pee standing up, for example.

Annika: Convenient.

Lukas: Yeah, and some have surgery, it’s always different. It’s similar to the peeing thing, having sex is also different for everyone. It depends how comfortable you feel with your body. Body dysphoria is of course a big thing. Body dysphoria is the term for the not possible identification with your body. What trans people also have is social dysphoria, that’s when you can’t identify with the way society treats and addresses you. Body dysphoria can be very high or very low on a scale, that’s different for everyone. And especially if someone has high body dysphoria, sex can be very hard before further adjustments to the gender they identify as are made. And if it’s not that high it can be that way too, and it also depends on the partner and how much you trust each other. One night stands are for many trans people difficult in the beginning. And like I said, it depends on things; there are prostheses, there are surgeries and what matters is that you’re comfortable and okay with it.

Annika: Yeah, now that we’re on the topic of sex – episode 30! It’s getting uncomfortable!

David didn’t have bottom surgery, right?

Lukas: Right. David didn’t have bottom nor top surgery.

Annika: Good, I understood correctly then.

Lukas: David, for example, leaves his binder on during the sex scene. That’s maybe one of the moments that are a bit unrealistic. Because a binder – that’s this black crop top, sometimes it looks like an undershirt – well, it’s to make the upper body flat. When we filmed that scene it wasn’t possible for me personally to take the binder off despite it being only logical because it restricts your breathing and during something like sex which isn’t… unathletic, I don’t know… breathing is important.

Annika: I always get a bellyache in the beginning. Why am I saying this?! I don’t imagine this to be very comfortable, well I would get a bellyache then.

Lukas: I’m wearing the binder in that scene because I didn’t want to take it off personally. This is an appeal because he also wakes up wearing the binder – don’t sleep in your binder, that’s very bad for your ribs, I only did that because I personally can’t take off the binder on set with lots of people and in front of a camera, but please, guys, don’t sleep with a binder on. You do it once and you regret it, so… just don’t do it.

Annika: And now we’re coming to the last scene. When all the boys sit at Matteo’s and are talking about women. And for a moment I got a feeling that it’s expected of David to be well informed about women.

(cut to druck clip of the boys talking about women)

Annika: And that’s what I found funny, when people think like “Yeah but you were a woman once, you must know how women tick! You can flirt better with them now!”, like no! You weren’t!

Lukas: Nope!

Annika: That’s just crazy, to think that way. Well, not crazy, but I think it’s funny because people automatically think so.

Lukas: No, I also worked on the script of the last 3 episodes and at first that’s the way it was written like, “Na? Tell us how that works” and then David answers them like “yeah that’s probably so and so”. But I said then, well, I don’t know that much about women, really… I, myself, always say I was born into a girl’s body, I never thought I was a girl, easy. It’s just… that’s the way you’re raised, as a toddler you can’t reflect on it. If everyone tells you that you’re a girl, then you’re a girl. But to expect you to know a lot about women or girls is a bit difficult because you get to know girls differently if you grow up with them. What kinds of girls talk I witnessed already and I thought oh god, what am I doing here?

Annika: Ohhh, right!

Lukas: Yeah, you get information that you don’t really need and you learn how to be friends with girls.

Annika: That are things you don’t really think about but that’s so interesting! That’s really cool.

Lukas: Yeah, but I’m really bad at flirting with girls. I don’t get it with girls. I think they just want to talk to me like girls did all my life–

Annika: It’s not better as a woman. I don’t know either.

I think it’s not that important to distinguish between men and women. Every person is complicated individually, you can’t say men are more complicated than women or women are more complicated than men–

Lukas: For God’s sake, no. I’m just generally incompetent.

Annika: Yeah. I think every one is in that case incompetent because you can’t just say “yeah man, she’s into me” and if you’re not using a dating app at the moment you can’t just say if she wants something from you or not and then there’s always this tension and it’s so complicated because does she send you signs or not?

Lukas: Always different.

Annika: Then, we’re done with all the references we made and the questions I had. I’m really educated now. Really. That’s really the first time that I talked about this.

Lukas: Yeah, but I’m happy to do this.

Annika: Yeah, me too.

Annika: So! We didn’t change clothes!

Lukas: Heh, what?

Annika: It’s a few weeks later but we’re still wearing the same clothes. And hello guys and welcome to this video. I already announced a few weeks ago that there will be an extra video about transgender in regards to the series Druck which is also by funk, it’s linked in the description. Its 3rd season was about…

Lukas: …Matteo, a gay boy who firstly has to accept the fact that he is homosexual himself, and then falls in love with David. But as he realizes that Matteo is very much interested in David, he distances himself because he’s transgender and doesn’t know how to deal with it.

Annika: And we’ll talk about a few scenes I picked out. It’s best if you watch the show first, it’s linked in the info box–

Lukas: There’ll be spoilers here…

Annika: Yeah, here will definitely be spoilers, just now, in fact. I think we should stop rambling now and begin! 

Okay, in episode 25 David distances himself from Matteo because the point is drawing near that he has to come out as transgender sooner or later. Now I wanted to ask you if something like this happened to you in real life as well, i.e. that someone fell in love with you and you had to come out and it got worse because of that.

Lukas: Uhm, no, for me it was that if you’re trans – this is my experience, I can only talk about my experience – uhm, during that time where people start dating I had to spend a lot of time with myself, inevitably, because of puberty when things changed that made me not feel comfortable. Which is why during that time there was no place for a relationship or sexuality for me. And my first relationship was when I – I wasn’t out, I wasn’t out to school – but the relationship was from a youth club in Hamburg, a LGBT youth club, that’s where I met him and he was pansexual and then we were together. And yeah.

Annika: Yeah cool!

Lukas: But that was – well, until now I never had this situation regarding a relationship where I really waited such a long time for it to get problematic, but I understand it very well; he came to school with the intention to just get through it, he was bullied at his old school… But I would advise everyone to be as open with it as you can, because at the end of the day you have to talk about it and if you’re really important to that person, then…

Annika: Yeah, I always tell men before they fall in love with me that I’m lesbian, so…

Lukas: Every man, really, right?

Annika: Yes it’s so exhausting!

Lukas: Hello, I’m lesbian, I know, I’m sorry.

Annika: Hello I’m lesbian!

Then there was also an iconic line in the show: “It’s not you, it’s me”

Lukas: Yes!

Annika: A classic, I’ve said it before, have you?

Lukas: Mh… Yeah.

(his phone rings)

Annika: Hey now! Mobile phones have to be turned off during class!

Lukas: My mom called.

Annika: Raise your hands if you said that line at some point. Nice.

Lukas: I think in that moment David says that as well…

Annika: But it’s so true!! I mean if you don’t have feelings for someone than it’s you yourself. Well, also it’s the other person because they’re not compatible with – okay let’s move on.

So! Next thing I wrote down, episode 28, the outing.

Lukas: The outing. *dum dum dum*

Annika: I wrote this down because… Matteo, in that moment, was really overwhelmed by the information.

(cut to druck clip of David coming out)

Is that– does that happen often, that people are really overwhelmed with the situation when you tell them that, yeah, I was a woman, I mean– uh, that’s also reprehensible, isn’t it?

Lukas: Yeah yeah yeah, a woman, ah??

Annika: I mean physically!

Lukas: Physically!

Annika: Phew! It’s so hard, I’m sitting here and have to struggle…

Lukas: Me too, hello? Even I can say something transphobic. But, that’s the thing: when I say something transphobic it’s always like “No. He’s transgender, he can’t be transphobic, that’s complicated”.

For me it’s like that by now, yes. When you’re not passing, when people look at you and are still like… have to think about it then it’s mostly like… “okay, huh, what does that mean?”, which pronouns, which names and stuff, but by now, since I’m very passing fortunately–

Annika: Passing means you are,,,

Lukas: That you’ll be recognized as the gender you feel.

Annika: Learned something again.

Lukas: Exactly. These are the terms. And then it’s mostly just “Huh? Okay?”… But I honestly have to say that I don’t run around and say hey I’m trans when I meet someone.

Annika: Hey! Lesbian!

Lukas: Yeah, like that! Even a lot of the cast – background info – a lot of the cast, even when we were in the middle of filming, thought I’m cisgender. They didn’t know I’m trans.

Annika: Awesome. I also thought, I really would have liked to watch this without knowing that you’re a trans man. If I would’ve checked that or not. You can write in the comments how that was for you.

Lukas: Yeah, if one of you didn’t know that spoiler already.

Annika: Yeah, and now a general question that might be a bit emotional, but… does rejection happen often?

Lukas: Rejection… naturally there are friends that come and go. When I came out pubically, in school, there were a few people who distanced themselves but that was okay for me because I don’t need these kind of people…

Annika: I always say you can sort out your friends really well like this. If people stay with you despite that information – this sounds so stupid – because you’re still the same person as before, then they are real friends and people who are like “oh my gooood nooo byeee” then you can sort them out, that’s what I always say, which is why it isn’t a loss.

Lukas: Yeah, with transgender it’s always like, “are you someone else now?” but you’re still the same person, it’s just the gender that’s now right and the way you feel and how you want to be addressed as.

I had a job offer with children that was denied because I’m transgender. And that, that was… that hurt a little. But that was in the moment that they told me “can’t you work as female here?”

Annika: What?!

Lukas: I mean, “start working here, that’s almost the same, we also had lesbian people here” and I was like yeah. Cool.

Annika: What is that even– What even is the difference???

Lukas: Yeah… they were like, “we’re afraid the parents might have a problem with this and that you’re confusing the children”, so these classic statements…

Annika: Oh my god… Every kid that I touch turns lesbian. It is contagious.

Lukas: It’s difficult.

But then I declined with thanks to work there as a girl.

Annika: A scene that I found beautiful is when Matteo talked to his flatmate and the flatmate just said “hey, what even is your problem with David being transgender? What do you like about him?” and this question was so nice, what do you like about him, because I think the same thing. I love that person not because they’re a woman but because the way they are. I mean, that she’s a woman is an influence, but… the person themselves is important. That’s what I wanted to say and that’s what I found beautiful.

(cut to druck clip of Matteo talking to Hans about David)

Lukas: And that is what you have to decide for yourself, to say, okay, can I imagine being with a trans man – I can’t force anyone to be into me?

Annika: I can.

Lukas: But in the show it was nice for me to have Hans ask what is the important thing.

Annika: Then it comes to the big outing in school. Because the PE teacher doesn’t want to grade David as a man but as a woman.

(cut to druck clip of the coming out)

Lukas: You can’t say that it’s not unrealistic. It is realistic.

The problem with school is always grading and especially regarding PE, boys and girls are graded differently, and…

Annika: I always got so upset because I wanted to be graded the same way as boys, they’re not better than I am! But at high jump I was kinda glad that girls were graded differently…

Lukas: That scene is only on the phone’s display and we started to act this scene in the changing room and Neuhaus says to David “but that’d be so positive for you, you’re getting better grades then!”. Mr. Neuhaus in our story – that was important for us and the actor – he’s not just evil. He’s not doing this to make David feel bad but he wanted to help him actually. David reacts accordingly, he’s like uh no? and that’s what makes him mad, he has his plan and that didn’t work out. And with school it’s difficult, there are a lot of things that you have to be aware of. Before I was out I talked to my school for about a month what you can do, with names, on certifications and such, all of that has to do with your ID and burocracy, uh, pretty boring stuff. And toilets, for example, too. In one scene, David comes out of a toilet which is actually a toilet for the teachers. At my school I got the key for the disabled toilet, which is of course a bit… critical… transgender isn’t a disability. That wasn’t what that meant. It draws attention to you, which isn’t convenient but… you have to find solutions so that everyone can deal with it.

I think what you have to say is that the reactions of the students on that staircase are a first reaction. It’s not something where they group up because they’re standing there a bit like chickens on the roost and are like “okay. now you’re over. You’re out of this school”…

People react to a new information that they didn’t expect and that’s the big thing in that moment.

Annika: Especially at that age there’ll be big gossip.

Lukas: When I came out to my school, my classmates reacted really positively and were really nice and I don’t want anyone who’s transgender and watches this show to think this is what will happen, I mean you can also see in the following episodes that–

Annika: That everyone stand up for him because that’s something normal.

Lukas: Exactly.

Annika: Often it’s better to be self-confident, because then people think “okay, I won’t say anything then”. When they realize that you’re an easy target then they attack you.

Lukas: Right. You shouldn’t be ashamed of who you are or what makes you different but be proud because that’s what makes you to the person that you are.