Teena Brandon (a.k.a. Brandon Teena)
Born: December 12, 1972
Birthplace: Lincoln, Nebraska, USA
Date of Death: December 31, 1993 (murdered)

I knew who she was. She said she had to get her head back together. She wanted to come back to her old life and her old life was Teena Brandon. – JoAnn Brandon (Teena’s Mother), 2000

Boys Don’t Cry is a 1999 movie that chronicles the tragic end of young Nebraskan Teena Brandon’s life. Teena, who has a “sexual identity crisis,” tapes her breasts and cuts her hair very short to appear like a man. She goes around as ‘Brandon Teena,’ dating women, and inevitably getting in trouble when they discover her secret. Brandon makes her way to Falls City, Nebraska, where she again poses as a man.

There, she falls in love with Lana, and hangs around with Lana’s circle of friends. When her true nature is finally revealed, Lana’s friends turn on Brandon, and eventually end up killing her. No real explanation is ever given as to why Brandon does what she does. The script by Pierce and Andy Bienen even portrays Brandon as confused. When her brother confronts her about being a lesbian, she denies that she is one.

Acclaimed as a movie portraying the problems faced by transvestite teens, the movie had some fatal flaws. Below is a write up exposing the problems in the film:

How did Teena’s mother, JoAnn Brandon, react to the film Boys Don’t Cry?

JoAnn Brandon was outraged by the film’s portrayal of her daughter Teena. In early 2000, JoAnn, who could not work because of severe asthma, still owed money for her daughter’s funeral. She said that she was irritated that a fund set up to pay for the funeral received meager contributions, while others, such as the filmmakers, profited from her daughter’s death. “I’m really sick and tired of people making money off my child,” JoAnn said in an Associated Press article. “I don’t understand how you can put three weeks of somebody’s life up on film and win an award for it.”