female – KitschMix

15 Female LGBT Filmmakers You Should Follow On Twitter – Feel free to add your favourite LGBT filmmakers on Twitter in the comments below, we’ll consider adding them to updated editions of this article.

@DesiMakesMovies – The tall, attractive, very funny Desiree Akhavan hit Sundance and OutFest this year with her first feature film, the comedy “Appropriate Behavior,” and has joined Lena Dunham on the hit series “Girls”

@babbitjamie – Jamie Babbit is a film director, producer and screenwriter. She directed the lesbian films ‘But I’m a Cheerleader’, ‘The Quiet’ and ‘Itty Bitty Titty Committee’.

@cdunye – Cheryl Dunye is a film director, producer, screenwriter, editor and actress. She is a lesbian and her work often concerns themes of race, sexuality and gender, particularly issues relating to black lesbians.

@cathydebuono – Cathy DeBuono is an American actress, who has started in lesbian feature films such as ‘Crazy Bitches’, ‘She4Me’, and web series ‘We Have to Stop Now’

@Soniasebastia – Sonia Sebastián is a director and writer, known for De chica en chica (2015), Elisa Guzmán (2004) and Ladrido, and new lesbian feature film Girl Gets Girl the movie.

@lisagornick – Lisa Gornick works with film, tv, drawing and performance. She is the writer/director of two award-winning art house comedy features ‘Do I Love You?’ and ‘Tick Tock Lullaby’. She also directs for TV including the award winning pickpocketing suspense drama Dip for Channel 4.

@francescagreg – Raised in Rome, Los Angeles and the English countryside, Francesca Gregorini brings a worldly, passionate and unique sensibility to her filmmaking. Her character-driven films – ‘The Truth About Emanuel’ and ‘Tanner Hall’ – are visceral and darkly humorous, stylistically bold, with undertones of the magical and surreal.

@alexkondracke – Formerly a writer/producer on The L Word and Hung, Alex Kondracke has gone on to director of the movie ‘Girltrash: All Night Long’ and is currently working on a project with Annapurna Pictures.

@RobinsonAngela – Angela Robinson is an American film and television director, screenwriter and producer who is work includes making movie D.E.B.S., directoring episodes of the L word and True Blood.

@JennieLivingsto – Jennie Livingston is a film director best known for the 1990 documentary ‘Paris is Burning’. She is currently working on a new project ‘Earth Camp One’.

@StaciePasson – Stacie Passon is a director and writer, known for lesbian movies ‘Concussion’. She was award the Film Independent Spirit Awards in 2014.

@redrubes14 – Yoruba Richen is famed for documentary filmmaker, professor, ‘pontificator’ and ‘passionate adventurer’, who has directed and produced films in the U.S. and abroad including Africa, South America and Southeast Asia. Her latest film The ‘New Black’ premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival in June and went on to win Audience Awards at AFI Docs, Philly Q Fest and Frameline LGBT Film Festival as well as a special jury mention at Frameline.

@turnerguinevere – Guinevere Turner is an actress and writer, known for American Psycho, Chasing Amy and Go Fish.

@kvpi – Christine Vachon – Christine Vachon was born in New York and is a producer, known for Boys Don’t Cry, One Hour Photo and Far from Heaven. She now runs New York-based production company Killer Films and is a champion of the indie film movement..

@laurenwolkstein – Lauren Wolkstein was named one of the top twenty-five emerging filmmakers through The Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Independent Filmmaker Project’s inaugural Emerging Visions program at the 2011 New York Film Festival. She famed for creating ‘Social Butterfly’, ‘The Strange Ones’, and ‘Cigarette Candy’.

Agender is a term that refers to individuals who identify as neither male or female, preferring the term “they” as opposed to the gender normative pronouns “he” or “she”. Agender people can have any sexual orientation, as sexual orientation is independent of gender identity.

The 4th November, 2013, San Francisco High School student Sasha Fleischman was sleeping on a public bus on the way home from school, when their clothing was set on fire, in an vicious attack. Fleischman suffered 2nd and 3rd degree burns and had to spend over a month in a hospital.

His attacker was teen Richard Thomas, a 16-year-old High School junior, said he was ‘allegedly’ provoked by the sight of someone who looked like a boy wearing a skirt. Richards has since been charged as an adult with two felony counts and a hate crime enhancement.

This tragic story made headlines in the San Francisco Bay area, and Fleischman suddenly found themselves thrust into the spotlight as a voice for the agender and gender queer community.

As a result of this publicity, San Francisco Magazine commissioned photographer Chloe Aftel to shoot the teen as well as others and tell their story – The Shadow Sex. These photos capture these young people in intimate setting, doing everyday things in their homes or places significant to them,

“I think a lot of people like to see gender as this scale of blue and pink. I never really identified with either side of that, or even in between blue and pink. It’s so much more complicated—my identity varies so much on any given day. Sometimes I tell people I’m gold or something.”

Researchers have discovered that those who live as neither male or female suffer the most from discrimination and violence in the LGBT community, their determination to remain undefinable seeming to provoke those with gender norms. However, for people like Fleischman, it is important to be who they are, even in the face of intolerance and personal risk.