Ma Vie en Rose

Seven-year-old Ludovic is a happy, healthy little boy who is convinced he’s a girl, no matter what others try to tell him. He likes to wear girls’ clothing and lipstick, doesn’t let his mother cut his hair, and frequently declares to strangers that he’s going to be a woman when he grows up. When God was distributing chromosomes, he explains to his parents, the chromosome that would have made him female accidentally fell into the garbage.

His family initially believes he is going through a phase, but things come to a head when Ludovic declares his long-term plans to marry Jerome, the boy next door and the son of his father’s boss. Sensitive, imaginative, and too young to understand why his heartfelt aspirations create an uproar, Ludovic innocently provokes a series of incidents that lead to ostracism of his family. At times funny, at times poignant, Ma Vie en Rose explores what it takes to survive in a world where people are measured by codes of conformity.

Norman Spack, MD, one of the world’s leading experts on gender variance and transgenderism in children, joins us before the film to discuss some still-controversial issues. Should parents permit or encourage a gender-variant, possibly transgender, pre-adolescent to assume a gender role of the opposite sex outside the home? If so, at what age? Based on new science, what are the therapeutic options for a transgender youth in early puberty? Dr. Spack will also take part in Q&A following the screening.

About the Speaker

Norman Spack, MD is an endocrinologist at Children's Hospital Boston and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. His interest in patients with gender variance was kindled in 1974 as a volunteer on the medical van of Bridge Over Troubled Waters, serving street kids. In 2007, he co-founded Children’s Hospital’s Gender Management Service, an interdisciplinary clinic for disorders of sex development and transgenderism. It is the only program of its kind outside of Europe. He was appointed to the Endocrine Society's seven-person international task force that published "Clinical Guidelines for Endocrine Treatment of Transsexual Persons" in September 2009. Dr. Spack has received numerous awards for his teaching, writings, clinical care, and community service.

Dr. Spack and the Gender Management Service Clinic were recently featured in a Boston Globe article about a transgender youth under their care. Read the article here.