Such behavior has evolved as a defense mechanism after years of various psychological and physical abuses, and it serves its purpose (particularly given that many of the subjects hustle their bodies for cash on a particular stretch of K Street, which requires a whole other dimension of self-protective measures). While the film doesn’t dwell on the rap sheets they’ve accumulated (presumably to avoid dogging their futures), we see several instances in which personalities accustomed to going postal over any perceived threat or disrespect come very close to the brink - and one street melee which hurtles right over it. These “sissies” might look and act girlishly flamboyant, but they were packing brass knuckles, knives and trigger-tempers. Figuring that the safety-in-numbers principle might protect them from frequent beatings and sometimes worse, several middle-schoolers started “the Check-It” in 2005.īanding together helped lessen their chances of various kinds of harm (from not only schoolmates and gangbangers but family members and prostitution johns), in large part because a fearsome reputation rapidly arose around their willingness to fight. ![]() Poverty, violence, broken homes and arrest records are standard formative experiences for these boys, whose often conspicuously “different,” feminine ways from an early age tended to attract even greater abuse than typical among their peers. The streets depicted here are just a stone’s throw from the corridors of power in the nation’s capitol, but they might as well be light-years away. Dana Flor and Toby Oppenheimer’s engrossing, well-crafted doc could parlay its attention-grabbing subject beyond the fest circuit into niche theatrical and broadcast exposure. Now they number over 200 - many armed and dangerous as well as fierce and fabulous. ![]() They’re local African-American gay and transgender youths who started their own gang for self-protection as a handful of fed-up 9th graders a decade ago. ![]() has one of the highest rates of anti-gay violence in the nation, bullies and predators would be advised to steer clear of “Check It’s” protagonists. Though an opening text informs that Washington D.C.
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