On this Transgender Remembrance Day, the film, “Born to Be,” which debuted at the New York Film Festival last year, has now been released virtually.

The documentary features Dr. Jess Ting from Mt. Sinai's Center for Transgender Surgery. It gives an honest look not only at what it means to be transgender, but at the surge of patients hoping to get the surgery they want for their physical and mental well-being.

“I’d like as many people to see it as possible. And the goal is just to decrease misunderstanding and prejudice and hate ultimately. Just to have people understand that trans and nonbinary people are just people like you and I — we all want the same things. We want to live a happy and healthy life,” said Ting.

Ting said when the program for transgender surgery at Mt. Sinai first launched, it amassed a wait-list of over 500 people.

“There’s such an unmet need,” he said.

About 0.6% to 1% of the population is transgender, according to Ting. “That is hundreds of thousands of people in New York alone and no doctors to care for them. No surgeons," he said.

“Our patients need health care just like you and I and there’s no one to do that,” the surgeon said.

Ting also pointed out that not every transgender person wants or needs surgery, and that every experience is different.