DECEMBER 23 IS going to be a great day. Not only is it two days before Christmas, but it’s also the day that two movies, “Transamerica” and “Breakfast on Pluto,” open in D.C.

It’s not rare that two movies open on any given Friday, but it is rare that two movies about fictional transgendered people are opening on the same day.

The reason that I’m looking forward to these movies is that audiences rarely get to see fictional movies with major trans characters. Instead, we see lots of dramatic accounts based on true stories like “Boys Don’t Cry” and Showtime’s Emmy-nominated “Soldier’s Girl.”

And all of these are movies. It’s probably only gay television columnists and trans activists who remember CBS’ short-lived 2001 drama “The Education of Max Bickford,” the only television program to have a regular trans character.

What there are torrents of on television, however, are documentaries about trans people, including the newest installment “Middle Sexes: Redefining He and She,” which debuts on HBO on Tuesday, Dec. 6, at 9:30 p.m.

HBO already delivered the stellar 2003 fictional transgender movie “Normal,” starring Jessica Lange and Tom Wilkinson, and this documentary lives up to the legacy of that movie.

FILMED MORE LIKE AN hour-long “20/20” or “Nova” special about gender issues, “Middle Sexes” travels the globe looking at how gender identity and those who fall outside of the male/female dichotomy fit into different societies.

Narrated by gay author Gore Vidal, director Anthony Thomas looks at a rural American family with a young boy who acts like a girl; India’s “hijras,” male-to-female transsexuals who perform religious ceremonies; Thailand’s “kathoey,” the country’s famous female impersonators; and a lesbian couple living in Suriname.

Throughout the hour and 15 minutes of the program, great care is taken to show the potential biological roots behind gender identity — including a look at a man who was born intersex, or with both male and female genitalia — but doesn’t spend much time discussing how people transition from one gender to the next with hormones, surgery or both.

Last year, Showtime’s emotional pair of documentaries “Opposite Sex” got up close and personal with a female-to-male and male-to-female transsexual with both graphic footage of each of their reassignment surgeries and how their families deal with the transition.

While this method was effective in combating ignorance, “Middle Sexes” takes the opposite tack. Instead of using specific examples, it casts the net wide to show the diversity of gender expressions and how they are either accepted or renounced by society.

That is really the most interesting factor about this film. It tritely describes human sexual behavior as “rainbows within rainbows” but truly proves its point with the examples discussed. Some of the people in the film, like Calpernia Adams, the real-life figure behind “Soldier’s Girl,” and Gwen Araujo, the trans teen killed in California in 2002, will be familiar to those knowledgeable about the trans community.

“Middle Sexes” smartly looks at the roots of fear and violence against people with variant gender identities. This discussion also entails an insightful look into how gender and its expression impacts sexuality and sexual orientation. Without getting preachy, including such data will go a long way in helping to prevent further fear and persecution against those who aren’t clearly male or female.

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