25 Facts About Brandon Teena

Brandon Teena's father died in a car accident in Lancaster County eight months before he was born, and he was raised by his mother.

Brandon Teena's family described him as being a tomboy since early childhood; Brandon Teena began identifying as male during adolescence and dated a female student during this period.

Brandon Teena's mother rejected his male identity and continued referring to him as her daughter.

Brandon Teena began rebelling at school by violating the school dress-code policy to dress in a more masculine fashion.

Brandon Teena enlisted in the United States Army shortly after his eighteenth birthday and hoped to serve a tour of duty in Operation Desert Shield.

In December 1990, Brandon Teena went to Holiday Skate Park with his friends, binding his breasts, to pass as male.

Shortly after, Brandon Teena was first employed as a gas station attendant in an attempt to purchase a trailer home for himself and his girlfriend.

In January 1992, Brandon Teena underwent a psychiatric evaluation, which concluded that Brandon Teena had a severe "sexual identity crisis".

Brandon Teena was later taken to the Lancaster County Crisis Center to ensure that he was not suicidal.

Brandon Teena was released from the center three days later and began attending therapy sessions, sometimes accompanied by his mother or sister.

In 1993, after some legal trouble, Brandon Teena moved to the Falls City region of Richardson County, Nebraska, where he presented as a man.

On December 19,1993, Brandon Teena was arrested for forging checks; Tisdel used money from her father to pay Brandon Teena's bail.

Brandon Teena's arrest was posted in the local paper under his birth name and thereupon his acquaintances learned that he was assigned female at birth.

Lotter and Nissen later assaulted Brandon Teena and forced him into a car.

Brandon Teena escaped from Nissen's bathroom by climbing out the window and going to Tisdel's house.

Nissen testified in court that he had noticed that Brandon Teena was twitching, and asked Lotter for a knife, with which Nissen stabbed Brandon Teena in the chest, to ensure that he was dead.

Brandon Teena claimed that he was the only one to shoot Teena and that Lotter had not committed the murders.

Joann Brandon sued Richardson County and Sheriff Laux for failing to prevent Teena's death and being an indirect cause.

Brandon Teena won the case, which was heard in September 1999 in Falls City, and was awarded $80,000.

District court judge Orville Coady reduced the amount by 85 percent based on the responsibility of Nissen and Lotter and by one percent for Brandon Teena's alleged contributory negligence.

Brandon Teena refused to speak about his actions in the case and swore at one reporter who contacted him for a story on the murder's twentieth anniversary.

In 1999, Brandon Teena became the subject of a biographical film entitled Boys Don't Cry, directed by Kimberly Peirce and starring Hilary Swank as Brandon Teena and Chloe Sevigny as Tisdel.

Brandon Teena claimed the film depicted her as "lazy, white trash, and a skanky snake".

Tisdel claimed that the film falsely portrayed that she continued the relationship with Brandon Teena after discovering that he was transgender.

Brandon Teena eventually settled her lawsuit against the movie's distributor for an undisclosed sum.