Tears and cheers marked the local debut of "Straight White Male" before a packed house last week at the Raven Theater in Healdsburg.

"It was such a nice film-- and so well done," said Cassandra Houghton of Healdsburg, a friend and neighbor of the documentary film's co-producer and lead character Tyler Erlendson. "I loved it."

Houghton and others who said they have been friends with Erlendson for years said they were surprised to discover many things they hadn't known about Erlendson's journey from a girl athlete named Audra at Healdsburg High School in the early 2000s to a man named Tyler today.

"The film speaks to an even louder message than just about the transgender journey," said Chris Kelly of Healdsburg. "It's about accepting people for who they are."

Erlendson, 28, a volunteer counselor on the crisis line for victims of sexual abuse at the Santa Rosa nonprofit agency Verity, said the film is less a slice of the transgender life experience than it is a "human story" about one person's journey to be true to himself.

Erlendson said there is no political message to the film. In addition, as a relatively conservative married guy who works and goes to school, Erlendson said he doesn't fit the stereotype of a LGTBQ community member -- or even the mold of a transgender person, if there is one.

"Every single person is a human being," he said. "It's a human story, and a story of how families are so intricately involved when someone makes such a big transformation."

"Straight White Male" premiered to wide acclaim in August at the Artivist Film Festival at Hollywood's famous Grauman's Chinese Theater. Erlendson, who spent more than six years making the film with co-producer Califa Weiss, said he has since submitted it to the Sundance and South by Southwest film festivals.

He said he wants to give the film as much as exposure as possible, to see if a distributor will pick it up. (For information, see www.graceperiodproductions.com).

"The goal is not so much to make money," said Erlendson, who spent thousands of dollars to make the film. "I'm trying to be an advocate for people like me who don't have a voice."

By telling the story of his transformation through the eyes -- and varying levels of acceptance -- of his parents, siblings, friends, in-laws and spouse, Erlendson actually succeeds in revealing a much broader, universal theme of the tight web of family and friends that permeates a person's life, he said.

"You don't do a transformation like this by yourself," he said. "Families have to transition too."

"Straight White Male" touches a nerve because of the incredible honesty of the human reactions expressed by Erlendson's family and friends.

"The inspiration I got is much larger than just awareness about the transgender issues," Weiss told the audience during a question and answer session after the screening. "It's that everyone has his or her own internal struggles and we all need to be a little easier on  each other -- and love each other."

Some of the film's most poignant moments were scenes where Barbara and Bill Chastain of Healdsburg -- parents of ZanD Erlendson, Tyler Erlendson's wife -- explained how they could accept a son-in-law who was formerly a woman.

In particular, the wedding scene where Bill Chastain has tears streaming down his face as gives his daughter ZanD away to be married to Tyler Erlendson triggered many a sniffle in the audience.

In the film, Barbara Chastain talks about how her daughter Casey, 35, who has Down's syndrome, taught her to loosen the confines of perfection about how thing should be.

"My family has a lot of acceptance," said ZanD Erlendson's brother Seth Chastain, 38, who grew up in Healdsburg but who now lives in San Francisco.  "Having a sister with Down's syndrome takes a lot of patience and a lot of acceptance -- there is always going to be something a little different."

ZanD Chastain Erlendson started out as a friend of Audra Erlendson's in high school, later transitioning to her fiancee as Audra committed to the sex change. She and Tyler Erlendson married in April 2010.

"It feels good [having the film done and released]," she said later. "I have a great sense of pride for Tyler and Califa.

"I think people were so genuinely moved," she said of the screening. "I'm so proud of that because it's hard to move people -- people are so numb these days."