A ground-breaking project, Mind if I Call You Sir? is an oral history video project documenting queer Latina/o histories through testimonies on gender expression by self-identified Butch Lesbians and Female-to-Male Transgendered men.
As a femme-identified Latina lesbian and community scholar, Karla E. Rosales has devoted her academic and artistic pursuits to issues of gender identity in the Latina community. Her research led her to uncover a growing rift between the 'old school' Butch Lesbian community and the rapidly-growing FTM community, whose numbers are increasing. Rosales recognized that there was a need for dialogue between the two communities.
Combining personal narratives with round table discussions, Rosales and director Mary Guzmān have created a video document of individuals from both communities. Mind If I Call You Sir? explores their individual gender identities, as well as each group's intricate relationships to each other in the larger social context.
In research, stories and other material on the multiplicity of gender expression, the discussion of race/ethnicity is often missing, as well as how socio-economics and class status affects Queer and Transgendered People of Color. Mind If I Call You Sir? is one attempt to bring the underrepresented into the mainstream.
