ITV1
Twelve year old Louise Jarvis’s parents are about as unconventional as it gets. But she’s adamant they’re not weird.
Her father was once called Brian but now he’s had a sex change operation and become Sarah… Dad is now mum. Brian’s partner, truck driver Lee, has also had a sex change and he’s now Louise’s other ‘mum’ Kate. Louise’s mother, Hayley, has remarried and is no longer part of her life.
Confused? Louise isn’t.
Since the news of this unusual family broke, Louise, Sarah and Kate have been dubbed by the tabloids as ‘Britain’s Weirdest Family’. Now Louise is being teased at school. But instead of hiding away, she’s determined to put the record straight and prove that her family may not be ordinary but it works.
This extraordinary story is seen through the eyes of Louise as she tries to come to terms with the unwelcome, and hostile attention her family has attracted. She retraces the family’s recent history explaining how she coped with Sarah and Kate’s sex change operations during which her dad became her mum and her dad’s gay male partner became his lesbian lover. And she goes on a journey to try and work out exactly what makes a ‘normal’ family and whether it really matters.
In an attempt to reach out to others like her, Louise befriends a twelve-year-old boy whose step-mum is transsexual and meets a woman whose children disowned her when she changed sex.
Interspersed with intimate actuality showing what it’s really like to be transsexual, Louise’s quest to defend her unusual family is both intriguing and touching.
In November 2007 My Mums Used to be Men won Best Documentary at the Barcelona International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.