It is exciting to see our stories being told and winning awards, but should we be concerned that transgender people have little involvement in the story telling?

If transgender people want to be respected and accepted for who they are, then the same courtesy must be extended to cisgender men. One's sexual gender preference deserves as much respect and acceptance as one's gender identity. This realization helped me come to terms with my general lack of attraction for trans women.

If I were going to generalize about this year's Toronto International Film Festival based on the films I saw Monday, I'd tell you that it's a great year for dramatic films based on true stories.

For anyone under 30, it may be difficult to imagine a time when the gay-rights movement wasn't operating at a milestone-a-minute pace. Fortunately a wave of artistic and media projects has emerged to remind us of heroes past, to refocus us on the type of activism that helped elevate the LGBT movement and to inspire us to make that final push.

Some people, and organizations, simply can't help themselves.