Danielle Joy “DJ” Healey, a renowned patent attorney in Texas, came out as a trans woman at age 57. An award-winning documentary, out this week on demand, follows her and her family as they navigate this transition and Danielle applies her legal skills to helping other trans and queer people. Watch a trailer here.
Director S.E. King first met Danielle pre-transition. when they became next-door neighbors in Sugar Land, a town near Houston. King later moved, but they stayed in touch. When Danielle came out, she spoke with King about doing a comedy series on her experience as a trans woman—but Danielle’s acting skills were not as good as her legal ones. The two of them eventually decided to do a documentary, and this film is the result.
The documentary follows Danielle, her family, and close friends for four years starting in 2018, after she had spent decades hiding her true self and coping by becoming a workaholic. While she had known she was a woman since she was four years old, Danielle didn’t tell another person until she was 44. It then took even longer to transition and come out to her family. She didn’t want to transition if it meant losing her wife of more than 30 years and their two kids (now grown), but also knew that she could not continue living a lie.
When she did come out to her family, they all went through a period of adjustment, getting used to Danielle’s new name and pronouns and figuring out how open to be in their conservative community. That wasn’t always easy, but they continued (and continue) to love and support her. As her younger brother Michael said, “I don’t see that anyone who loves her has any issue with it.” That love and acceptance unfortunately wasn’t the case for a trans friend of hers who also came out later in life, as we see in the film as well.
Danielle’s law firm was supportive, too (her law partner and friend suggested her new name), although she lost much of her paying law practice. Nevertheless, Danielle came to find meaning in applying her legal skills to work pro bono for trans and other LGBTQ rights, hoping to give something back to the LGBTQ community from which she had gained so much. Her work extended beyond the office, too; a 19-year-old trans woman from Honduras, who was seeking asylum in the U.S., ended up living with Danielle and her family during COVID, and Danielle now thinks of her as a daughter.
This is the story of one woman and her family, but it is also the story of a community of people helping each other to be themselves and feel safe and loved, even in a location where one might not expect such support and joy. It is not every trans woman’s story (no single story could be), but it is an important one, told with compassion, insight, and moments of gentle humor.
The film won the Best Documentary Feature Jury Award at the Manchester International Film Festival, the LGBTQ+ Voices Jury Award & Audience Award at the Portland Film Festival, and the Audience Award at the Vail Film Festival.
Our Dad, Danielle will be available on digital/VOD (video on demand) from most major streaming and cable services starting November 1. (Content warning: Danielle mentions feeling that if she didn’t transition, she didn’t think she would be able to live.) Here’s the trailer:
