“My daughter is six years old,” Debi Jackson said before a crowd of people at the Unity Temple on the Plaza in Kansas City. “She transitioned, which means she changed her outward appearance from male to female and started living full time as her true gender, when she was four. Until that point she was quite a rough and tumble little boy with a buzz cut and a shark tooth necklace.”
In her speech, Jackson explains that when her daughter, then her son, was three years old, she asked for a princess dress. After that, she asked for more dresses, headbands, sparkly pink shoes, and girl’s underwear. Jackson abided by all the child’s wishes, except for the underwear.
One day, she noticed her daughter pulling at her genitals, so she asked what was wrong. “She said that they bothered her and were in the way,” Jackson said. “She wanted them gone.”
“I had never even heard the word ‘transgender’ before and really didn’t know what to think,” she continued. “We made an appointment with our pediatrician. She recommended a child psychologist. But before we could even get an appointment, my daughter, then my four year old son, said to me: ‘Mom you know I’m really a girl, right? I’m a girl on the inside.’ That moment changed my life.”
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Jackson began letting her daughter dress in girl’s clothing around the house, then eventually out in public.
“The day I let her go to school in girl clothes, she was happier than I had seen in a very long time,” Jackson said. “The kids were great and the teachers were awesome. But then the kids went home and told their parents and they weren’t so great after that.”
Jackson said her family had to “go into hiding” for a year, during which they lost many of their friends and family members. But she refuses to let their bigotry prevent her daughter from being who she truly is.
Check out her moving speech in the video below. You’ll be glad you did.
masc4masc
When I was younger, I wanted to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.
bsaucy00
@masc4masc: And?
Trans people know from a far younger age that they are trapped in the wrong body as opposed to gay people who don’t understand until they get older.
I think your comment that you may think is funny is actually quite transphobic.
masc4masc
@bsaucy00: …and I’m glad my parents didn’t decide to raise me as a turtle based on my desire back at that time.
malvolio
did you want to be an insensitive asshole when you were younger? because it worked.
malvolio
i proudly know a great number of transgendered people, and no one “WANTS” to go through the condemnation and censure. these people are born that way.
bsaucy00
@malvolio: Well said I think @masc4masc: was clearly starved of oxygen for a while when he was younger.
Its a shame that even in the LGBT community we still have those that are as intolerant as the Bible Bashers!
masc4masc
Herpetophobes!
I was crushed whenever my mom told me I couldn’t wear my Donatello gear to school. I tried to color my arms and legs with my green marker, and my dad always made me wash it off like he was ashamed of seeing me that way. Sometimes I wonder how I made it through. *sigh*
Paco
@bsaucy00: Well as a community, we seem to choose to tolerate it. Not sure why the great outrage machine of political correctness seems to always be broken when the hateful comments come from our own.
Scribe38
@masc4masc: You were mistreated! Your mother so should have let you play in the sewer with rats. We would be free from your constant hard-on for transsexuals. I’m a gay male and couldn’t care less how someone defines their gender, yet you run from post to post spilling sh*t towards people you don’t understand. It’s not your life, get over it. Then again maybe that’s your issue. Is there a woman screaming to get out in you, and you have anger at those brave enough to be their true selves?
masc4masc
@Scribe38: Our trans brother-sisters and sister-brothers prefer not to be called transsexuals. The word is TRANSGENDER. Please educate yourself!
http://transequality.org/Resources/TransTerminology_2014.pdf
ChiChi Man
Yell at me for feeding the troll, but I have to respond to femme4femme: you’ve never had children and you never should. If you’d ever raised children, you’d know that they have extremely short attention spans. When a child holds onto something and keeps holding onto something, a good parent notices and acts. It’s clear from the vid, that the mother waited to see if her daughter would suddenly want to be a ninja warrior, but it didn’t happen. And the rejection of genitalia is classic trans behavior. Most kids don’t hate their body parts. The world needs more mothers like this one.
Geoff B
I can’t claim to understand people who are transgender. I don’t have to. What I feel I have to do is be a decent person and not make their lives any harder. What I feel I have to do is feel empathy regarding the fact that they have a hard path to walk and as a decent person and not add to their hardship. I do this by not making fun of them for no reason other than to be a jerk. By adressing them by their preferred pronoun. By realizing that everyone has the right to go about their life without being tormented just because of who they are. I won’t walk on eggshells to be PC, but I will do my best not to hurt someonewhose existence brings no harm to my life in any way. I normally can’t stand the whole “check your privelege” thing, but as a gay man I’ve had a walk in the park compared to most. My family has been ove the top supportive from the start. I’ve never had to worry about how I was going to pay my bills, I’ve never been attacked to my face as I’m what many consider “straight acting” and am well over 6 feet and built like a linebacker. I make no apologies for any of it, but I refuse to use this as an excuse to belittle others who don’t fit my mold. This is who I am and I can’t change it. I think expecting anyone else to change who they are to “fit in” is the height of arrogance. It is my right to live my life free of bigotry and torment. That same right belongs to everyone else who is just trying to live their life and as long as they’re not pissing in my Wheaties, I’ll do my small part to make thier path a little easier. Getting off my soapbox now. Good night
Larry & Patrick
@bsaucy00: I believe that while the comment was meant to be entertaining I agree with you whole heartedly…it is precisely that kind of tired old rhetoric that continues to be hurtful, spiteful and of no redeeming social quality.
masc4masc
@ChiChi Man: Sorry to disappoint you, but I have a daughter. This is part of why I feel stories like this are examples of child abuse. Yes, kids can have short attention spans, but they can also be very adamant about things that they don’t have the capacity to know may not be in their best interest. How homophobic of you to just assume I couldn’t be a parent already. Now how many kids do you have, Mr. Child Development expert??
erasure25
@Geoff B: That speech was hot! If speeches can be as such…
Saint Law
@masc4masc: I don’t think it was homophobia caused ChiChi Man to assume you couldn’t be a parent. We’ve only your posts to go on and they indicate you are a moron.
Of course morons have kids too, God knows. But it really shouldn’t be encouraged.
RSun
@Saint Law: “Of course morons have kids too, God knows. But it really shouldn’t be encouraged.”
Bwahahaha!
Scribe38
@masc4masc: I guess you would know. What is the name you will go by after you transition? You’re like secretly gay-GOP members working against their own herd, because they aren’t brave enough to be their true self. Come out baby and be your true self, none of us will think lesser of you. Hell some of the bisexual members on this site might even throw you one (not me, cause I am sure sex change or no you will still be a dick).
masc4masc
@Scribe38: Sorry, I must’ve missed your answer; how many kids does the child-rearing expert have? Funny how you’re now using trans as an insult to try and taunt me, yet I bet you go apeshit when people tease straight guys with accusations of being gay like it’s a bad thing. How transphobic and hypocritical of you.
corvaspikenard
It all makes sense now. Masc4masc is jealous that this kid is getting what she wants (and other trans people) but he didn’t get to be a ninja turtle.
It’s OK Masc4masc; you can be a ninja turtle now if you want to. You can use body paint instead of green markers and there is a whole community called ‘furries’ who will indulge your inner reptilian persona 🙂
Go and be free 🙂
trans_girl
Well @masc4masc I’m also a trans person and let me tell u something when I was 4 I wanted 2 where girls stuff and I wasn’t allowed I also wanted too b a dog and my pedants wouldn’t let me but there’s a big fucking difference between a silly fucking fantasy and a medical condition because guess what 14 years later I’m still wanting to b a girl but I’m over the whole dog thing and I hate to break it too u but it’s not only your pedants who didn’t want to c u prancing about as a fucking ninja turtle but the whole world doesn’t. Want to c u and If u r that fucked up and wanna b a ninja turtle then go on a transpiecies website where u can transition into even more of a mutant the u already r