Prodigal Sons

Transsexual film-maker Kimberly Reed has wowed America with new movie “Prodigal Sons” which tells the tale of two young brothers and their battle with sexual identity. “Paul McKerrow was an all-American boy. Raised in Helena, Montana, he was the quarterback for his high-school football team, which is as close to being idolised as many small-town Americans come. He was also his class president, the valedictorian of his year in 1985 and voted most likely to succeed by his classmates. He was tall and ruggedly good-looking. McKerrow, in short, had it made and great things were expected of him. So it was with some trepidation that McKerrow recently attended his 20-year high-school reunion as Kimberly Reed, a lesbian, New York-based film-maker who had had gender reassignment to become a woman. ‘It was very emotional. I wanted it to go smoothly. People get freaked out enough by going to their high-school reunion. But having a new gender is a big surprise for a lot of people,’ Reed said. Yet Reed found that her worries were unfounded. Defying the preconceptions that surround many people’s views of small-town America, she was welcomed home with open arms. ‘It has been really great. It really was easy. That became the surprise,’ she said. Reed has now made a documentary about her story, which has become a major hit on the American film festival circuit.”