Premiering at SXSW, The Dads follows fathers of trans and nonbinary children as they confront escalating anti-trans policies and reimagine masculinity, parenthood and what it means to protect their kids in today’s America.
The Dads, a new feature-length documentary, follows the fathers of trans, nonbinary and gender-expansive children as they weather the rapid escalation of anti-trans legislation in the United States over the past two years.
Directed and produced by Luchina Fisher, the film debuted last month at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival in Austin, Texas. Executive produced by former athlete Dwyane Wade—who, alongside actor Gabrielle Union, has become one of the most visible public advocates for trans youth through his unwavering support of his daughter Zaya—the film is grounded in a broader cultural push for acceptance and protection of trans children.
Many may be familiar with the Emmy-Award winning short documentary of the same name that premiered on Netflix in 2023.
The film bears witness to parents’ struggle with whether to stay in the United States or move abroad in face of bans on restrooms, sports and gender-affirming care for trans youth.
Inside of this important documentary about parents forced to become “political refugees” in their own country (and the others they are escaping to) is a timely reflection about how having a trans or nonbinary child has not only made them better dads but also better, healthier men.
As Christoph Heinzer, the son of Swiss German immigrants, admits at the start of the film, having two nonbinary children has made him want to become a better father and has also challenged the models and mentors of fatherhood he had growing up.
The Dads Retreat group first met back in 2022, where they gathered not just to talk, cry and laugh but also to play basketball and fish together. In a rural cabin (away from the eyes and expectations of others), the group helped fathers of trans and nonbinary children find community and solidarity to ask questions, voice fears, and celebrate the joys in raising their queer and trans children. The film and these fathers reinforce that this is work they need to undertake themselves, rather than putting the burden on their children or spouses to educate them.
“I wanna keep being a better dad, and I don’t know how,” Heinzer said. “I can’t go to the people that I thought I could trust. They’re letting me down because they’re not keeping up. Good enough’s not good enough anymore. ”
In the film, the fathers are encouraged to deconstruct and re-envision their own masculinity. Their trans and gender expansive children, and the trans and gender expansive adults they have met, do not threaten their masculinity; in fact, they deepen it.
As one Dads Retreat attendee Frank Gonzalez said, “There is nothing more manly than loving your child and protecting your family.”
To watch men be physically affectionate and emotional with each other is so refreshing that it does give me hope that other kids are gonna be okay.
Goldberg
The fathers witness the attacks on their queer and trans children firsthand—where in the United States, they are increasingly denied access to sports, restrooms and gender-affirming care. As they see their children’s rights stripped away, they are reminded of how much privilege they have in their own bodies.
AC Goldberg, the first trans and intersex dad to attend the Dads Retreat, makes this clear by sharing his own lived experiences navigating gender-affirming care and transphobia in America today.
Goldberg asks the other dads whether they thought about gender before their child came out to them; only about half raise their hands.
As many of the men share with each other on the retreats, accepting and affirming their trans, nonbinary and gender expansive children is an invitation for them to think critically about their own gender and masculinity. Making the world safer for their trans and nonbinary children is not just about fighting harmful legislation, but also unpacking the violent masculinity and traditional gender roles that some of them helped perpetuate.
Because, as the dads realize, they too have suffered because of restrictive, one-size-fits-all gender roles and expectations. Carlos Salazar shares with the group that he grew up in his mom’s nail salon and wanted to follow in her footsteps but was discouraged by his dad. This was the first time that he became aware of his own gender and the expectations that came with it. But in sharing it with the other dads, he realized how many of his fellow retreatants shared the experience, how many fathers crumbled under gendered expectations and are beginning to shed them.
“To watch men be physically affectionate and emotional with each other is so refreshing that it does give me hope that other kids are gonna be okay,” Goldberg said.
Witnessing the legal challenges their children are facing puts into perspective how much privilege many of them never realized they even had.
“The dads are going to be more important than ever because they’re setting an example for other men about how to be allies and how to disrupt the harmful narratives that we’re seeing,” Goldberg said.
The Decision to Leave the U.S.
Throughout the film, we witness two fathers, Ed Diaz and Jose Trujillo, decide to move their child outside of the United States. Frank Gonzales and his family eventually leave the U.S. as well.
Ed Diaz, a general contractor living in San Antonio with his Canadian wife Tim, made the decision to relocate his trans daughter Charli to Canada. In the powerful scene, we witness Tim—a Canadian citizen—legally adopt Charli over Zoom. Diaz, Charli’s birth mom, and Charli made the difficult choice together, and both Diaz along with Charli’s birth mom supported moving Charli to Canada.
Diaz and other parents’ choices to leave the United States is not one of weakness but parental responsibility. The Supreme Court 2025 decision (United States v. Skrmetti) to ban gender-affirming care for minors is an affront on trans children’s lives because gender-affirming care is lifesaving. More trans, nonbinary and genderqueer children and young adults experience anxiety, depression and even suicidal ideation compared to their cisgender peers, but gender-affirming care has been associated with up to a 73 percent lower risk of suicide and a 60 percent reduction in depression.
In the past several months, we’ve seen far-right attacks on trans lives and rights escalate—from invalidating driver’s licenses for trans people in Kansas, to requiring schools to inform parents if their child comes out. The fathers in The Dads showcase how their children’s lives are under attack, and with this rapid escalation, they’re not sure what will come next.
Lizette Trujillo, the wife of Dads Retreat member Jose and mom to trans son Daniel, admits that she asked the question no one wanted to verbalize: Jose is a naturalized U.S. citizen, born in Mexico. What if they criminalize gender-affirming care? This would mean that anyone aiding and abetting their son receiving vital healthcare could be convicted of a crime and this could be used as grounds for denaturalizing Jose.
She was not wrong—on March 11, 2026, Trump’s State Department issued a new rule, “Enhancing Vetting and Combatting Fraud in the Immigrant Visa Program.” Under this new guidance, all visa applicants are required to disclose their “biological sex at birth” during all stages of the process, “even if that differs from the sex listed on the applicant’s foreign passport or identifying documentation.” This rule also orders applicants to the green card lottery program share their passport information.
In knowingly collecting passport information that the agency knows will not match a person’s biological sex at birth, it’s creating grounds to deny trans peoples’ biases on the basis of “fraud,” Aleksandra Vaca of Transitics explains. This policy creates a precedence for trans people to be stripped of their visas and deported—because under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(C)(i), any foreigner found to have obtained or possess a visa “by fraud or willfully misrepresenting a material fact” will have their visa revoked and face deportation.
Even before this terrifying development, Lizette, Jose and Daniel uprooted their life and moved to Spain—a difficult decision but one that they thought was in the best interest of Daniel.
Not Everyone Has the Privilege to Leave
This time, I am not going to let fear dictate my life. … Those of us who are trans do know what it means to survive outside of support networks. The government was never coming to save us.
AC Goldberg
Some fathers are determined to stay in the U.S. and fight.
Goldberg, a professor at Northeastern University and a trans father, admits that he fled the United States to Canada during Trump’s first term, fearful of what a country governed by bigotry would look like. He returned to the United States during Biden’s term and actively considered leaving again following Trump’s election in 2024.
“But this time, I am not going to let fear dictate my life,” Goldberg said. “Those of us who are trans do know what it means to survive outside of support networks. The government was never coming to save us.”
It’s a difficult truth that many queer and trans people know all too well.
The impetus for the modern queer liberation movement was a riot against police brutality of queer and trans patrons at the Stonewall Inn in 1969. It was trans people–especially trans women of color—who stood up to state-sanctioned violence that sparked the push for queer rights: for queer peoples’ rights to marry, have and raise children, and have legal protections against homophobia and transphobia in the workplace (although many still face this discrimination and outright violence today).
What we are witnessing today is a backsliding of those promises of state protection. But queer and trans people—and supportive parents like those featured in this documentary—are not backing down.
The ability to leave the country, and to seek political refuge, is itself a form of a form of privilege. For many Americans, the option to leave isn’t even on the table, even when their safety is at risk.
Wayne Maines, dad to Nicole Maines who made national headlines after coming out as trans, called this out: “The ones that can leave have privilege like me. But what about that 13-year-old trans kid living in a trailer park outside of Houston? Their average family can’t even afford to leave their state.”
Watching The Dads as a Queer American Today
I’m a queer person. Various scenes in The Dads were excruciating to watch because we’ve been living through what these same fathers are facing. It represents the importance and difficulty of watching films about our present resistance movements. It’s a stark and sometimes painful reminder of how far we have gone but also how far we have to go. I’ll admit that I had to pause the film halfway through to catch my breath—my body heavy from the fear and devastation I was seeing the fathers face in the documentary. But it’s an essential watch and ends on a surprisingly poignant note.
In the end, The Dads is about faith—faith in the experiment of the United States, faith in dads to know who their children are and how best to protect them, and faith in all dads to grow and learn who they are.
As Maines said at the film’s conclusion: “If I’ve learned anything on this journey it’s to embrace the diversity that’s all around me. I love everybody now. That’s where we need to be as a nation. Maybe I’m naive, but I don’t wanna stop trying.”
