Jazz Jennings has been in the public eye since 2007, when, at age six, she appeared on 20/20 and a number of other programs with her family as an out-transgender girl. This publicly spawned two books, a documentary and a TLC series, I am Jazz, following her life as a transgender girl, teenager and now a young woman.
This June, for the magazine’s Pride issue, Jazz was featured as Variety’s cover star, where she discussed her life as a trans activist, the progress made towards transgender acceptance in her lifetime and the barriers still standing in the way of equality.
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“There’s been a lot of progress, but I think with the abundance of love and acceptance, there’s also that contrast of hatred and cruelty,” she told Variety. “People are more outspoken. People feel empowered to share their loving, and empowered to share their hatred.”
Jazz spoke out against legislation passed in several states banning transgender girls from competing on all-girls sports teams or barring transgender youth from receiving gender-affirming care like hormone blockers, which she described as “life-saving.”
“So often people are like, ‘Kids don’t know better.’ But the kids do know, and we should be listening to them, because they’re more connected to their spirit and to their soul than a lot of adults are … I’m hopeful that the bills will be dismissed, or something will be passed at the federal level that prevents these bills from being able to be passed,” she says.
On June 2nd Jazz took to Instagram to denounce the anti-trans bill recently passed in her home state of Florida.
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“Here’s my message to all LGBTQ+ people everywhere: you deserve to be loved and respected regardless of you gender identity or sexual orientation. They may try to take away our sports, our healthcare, and our rights, but they can’t take away our #PRIDE!” she wrote.
After 14 years of being such a visible transgender activist, Jazz is comforted by the emergence of so many other transgender children and teenagers who feel emboldened to share their stories
“I’m not the only one who’s trying to make a difference in the world,” she told Variety. “I’m just one person doing what I can to make a difference.”
You can read the full cover story here and catch I am Jazz on TLC when it comes back for its seventh season, in production now.
