Josh “JDA” Davila made an impressive run for the title during American Idol Season 12, belting out foot-stomping tunes on the way to the semi-finals in Las Vegas. But though the voice that won over fans during the show may still be wowing audiences, Josh has transitioned and has since become Jaidah Christina.
Now you can find her at a resident singing gig at one of Chicago’s largest trans-friendly nightclubs — a job she calls a “dream.”
She talked with The TV Page about her experience after the show, and about what it’s been like to transition.
Here are some highlights:
You finally came out to your mom as being a Trans woman a few months ago. How did she not know what was going on?
She knew that I was cross dressing and wearing makeup and heels and being this very feminine person. She didn’t know that I was injecting myself two times a week. She didn’t know that I was altering my DNA, my biological make up. She just thought that I was cross dressing and being happy. So I had to hide a little bit from her. I told everyone but her and that suddenly hit me that that wasn’t fair for her to be left out.
Was everyone in your family on board with the transition?
I have a gay uncle, who I am not going to name. When he started seeing on my Facebook that I was wanting to be called “her” and “she” instead of “him,” he stopped hitting me up and that really hurt my feelings.
Has the transition helped you meet any guys?
I have someone very special in my life. The person I am with currently, who I hold very close to my heart, respects me and loves me. When he found out about my whole AMERICAN IDOL adventure, I was devastated. I met him as a woman, but he didn’t know anything about my past. It was hot and heavy when he and I met and continued for a while like that. So when he found out about that I was very devastated. But it’s a year later and we are still seeing each other.What was life like for you after AMERICAN IDOL?
After IDOL I had to come back to selling cosmetics and living my androgynous life and accepting the fact that I had just been on national television. There was all this love but then it quickly started fading away. I started focusing on my transition and I lost focus on my music. So things didn’t work out for me the way I probably dreamed that I wanted it to. Which is why — even though I know I am still very special and I have that small exposure on television under my belt — I still feel a little mediocre now with that passing and me not being relevant and not doing anything about it.Do you think your appearance or sexuality hurt you on IDOL?
I don’t think so. I think they knew that I was a force to be reckoned with, but were so fixated and stuck on the fact that they wanted a female Idol. They knew that from the beginning and we all gossiped about that.
Congrats, Jaidah — keep on kicking ass.
For the full interview, head to The TV Page.
Clark35
Trans people do not alter their DNA or chromosomes, as they’re still the gender that they were born and biologically are when they transition.
gauty
@Clark35: No-one cares, troll :p
aliengod
@Clark35: I’d have to agree with you. And in this case, he has said in interviews that he has no intention of removing his penis. So he’s definitely still all man.
DarkZephyr
@Clark35: gay people like you, her uncle and Aliengod boggle my mind. HOW can you be so bigoted against Trans people when you KNOW what its like to be marginalized? I just don’t understand it!
@gauty: Amen
@aliengod: You continue to be despicable.
Clark35
@DarkZephyr: Nothing we are writing is bigoted against trans people.
I know trans people who refuse to get a sex change or have any elective cosmetic surgery, or take any hormones, and this is because in their own words: “Getting elective cosmetic surgery, a sex change operation, and taking hormones would not actually make me the opposite gender that I want to be as the surgery and hormones are not that yet advanced, and getting surgery and taking hormones would simply make me a person imitating the opposite gender, and not actually make me the opposite gender or give me the genitals and body of the opposite gender that I want.”
GayMafiaKingpin
Here we are, a gay community, fighting for acceptance and tolerance from others, but some among us are just as intolerant as those who work to oppress us. Uninformed, bigoted people are expressing their opinions of what trans people are, right here in this thread, who would very likely be quite pissed off if someone were as dismissive of them. Your comments are reminiscent of the ignorant comments we usually hear, such as “You chose to be gay.”
You’re an embarrassment. Were I given the option to exclude anyone from the LGBT movement, it would be those who choose to disrespect, dismiss, and diminish the value of our trans brothers and sisters.
Please go and educate yourself on the topic before speaking your mind on it. If you would like some information about it, I’d be happy to point you toward all sorts of resources.
I will explain one tiny tidbit for you, though: Sex refers to what’s between your legs. Gender is in the mind. Gender is in how one presents themselves. You are respected as the gender you present as, and trans people are simply asking for that same respect. Try being a decent, tolerant human being.
GayMafiaKingpin
@aliengod: She’s a woman. One does not need to have a vagina to be a woman. Intersex people have ambiguous genitalia. Do you also decide what gender they are for them? How do you make these determinations without pulling everyone’s pants down, or lifting up their skirts?
GayMafiaKingpin
@Clark35: Sex = what’s between your legs. Gender = is how you identify mentally. and related to social and cultural roles and behavior. Gender does not always have to be tied to DNA or chromosomes. And unless you’re planning on checking everyone’s DNA and chromosomes when you meet them, I suggest you forgo that line of thinking.
OzJosh
@gauty: What Clark35 says is just scientific fact. So it’s hardly trolling.
Arconcyyon
Way way is sucesss is the reallity show is yes ! the citty país LASVEGAS TVE ! Because is that the is realllity is the citty país Brazzil Tve Medi in Portugal Lisboan SBT TELEVISSION dont´s is no no no the live is grame sistemy no ! Show is happyss guys drag transg girls show night is yes .
GayMafiaKingpin
@OzJosh: No, it isn’t scientific fact. Science is changing people’s gender, so how can it be a scientific fact that their gender is not changing?
Why are there so many proud, ignorant, intolerant people on here?
aliengod
@GayMafiaKingpin: What a silly statement. As Clark35 said, people can’t change their DNA.
I could decide to begin identifying as a German Shepherd, but that doesn’t change what I am.
Bee Gaga
@aliengod: Please do get an education. As @GayMafiaKingpin: already explained to you mrs. bigot, sex and gender are two separate things. One is genetic and biological, the other is societal and cultural. Perception is reality, most trans women live their lives as women and experience life as women and are treated by the law and society at large, as such, therefore, they are women. If you can realistically live as a German Shepherd as trans people can,realistically, live as a separate gender then more power to you sis. Get off the internet, take off all your clothes, get on all fours and start barking and roaming the streets hoping a family takes you to a dog shelter (we all would only be so lucky).
moonman157
It’s so disheartening to see people from our own community on this board use the SAME arguments against trans people that right-wing bigots used and continue to use against gay people. One of the most frustrating things is being told by non-gay people what it’s like to be gay (it’s a choice, it’s a phase, it’s unnatural, you’re gay because you were molested or had a bad relationship with your father). In the end, we want people to recognize that only we can truly know ourselves and our experiences, and we ask for deference and respect when it comes to those personal issues. So when we have people here telling trans people what they are or aren’t, it’s absolutely despicable. You’re no better than the Christian anti-gay bigots that you profess to hate.
demented
Lady, you cannot change your DNA. Totally cool with you becoming who you really are inside, but hormones don’t change your DNA. If you could change your DNA, you wouldn’t need hormones.
Also, I would have wings and green skin.
demented
PS not trying to be flip in that last joke. I’m just saying that we would all rpobably be different if we could alter our DNA that easily.
Clark35
@moonman157: “You’re no better than the Christian anti-gay bigots that you profess to hate.”
Actually yes we are. Mainly we’re fed up with how a lot of Trans people have lots of hate and bigotry for us bisexual, gay, and lesbian people who are not trans who are tired of being told by trans people that we are “transphobic” because we don’t rally behind every batshit utterly pointless thing the Trans community wants to rally behind or takes offense at. Like that poor teenage boy in Ohio who killed himself who trans people want to publically harass the family of, change the kid’s grave of to a female name, and there are even some trans people who are now claiming that the trucker was “transphobic”. It’s also messed up how the trans community is claiming that kid is a hero, martyr, or that his suicide actually accomplished something.
We LGB people are sick and tired of being told that we are “transphobic” simply because we don’t want to date or fuck trans people, when in reality we don’t hate trans people or people who want to claim that they’ve changed sexes but we don’t buy into your flawed logic and magical thinking. Or how there are a lot of trans people who have a lot of hate for people who are not trans or “cis” as the laughable insult is used.
The majority of people who are bi, lesbian, or gay do not have gender/sex issues, don’t want a sex change, and do not want Trans people hijacking our issues, our resource centers, or being a part of our community since whenever there’s an issue that effects LGB people you always turn around and make it about yourself, or act as though your issues are more important than ours are.
There are also a lot of trans people who think that LGB issues and the LGB community should be separate from that of the Trans community, and Trans issues.
@GayMafiaKingpin: It’s very easy to tell if someone’s trans, and even the ones that look “Passable” it’s very obvious. Intersex/hermaprodite people who you mentioned in your previous comment have the genitals of both sexes; but genetically they are either male or female.
Kev
Wow people, so much hatefulness. In the interview she says, “She didn’t know that I was altering my DNA” in reference to her mother’s lack of knowledge of her taking hormones. Maybe Jaidah could have said: that she didn’t know that I was modifying my body. Of course she can’t alter her DNA aka her genetic code; she can alter her ‘self’ as the physical expression of that DNA through hormones, plastic surgery, and make-up to bring that self more in line with her gender identity.
Clark35
@moonman157: It’s also annoying how Trans people get all bent out of shape calling everything “cisgender privilege” or get offended at someone calling SRS/transitioning a sex change operation even though that’s what it is, or they get mad when actual women talk about issues with their bodies and will say things like, “some women have penises! Or have transitioned from being men!”, or when Transmen get offended when actual men tell them that their enlarged clit or dildo is not an actual penis, and that actual men do not have vaginas, ovaries, or get a hysterectomy.
Bee Gaga
@moonman157: Perfectly said, don’t respond that that Clark fool she’s a known troll on here, don’t even engage her that’s what she want.
Clark35
@Bee Gaga: Nope I’m not a troll. However I am telling people the reasons why us LGB people want to drop the T, and why Trans people think that LGB and T issues should be completely separated.
aliengod
@Bee Gaga: So you think a man can slap on some makeup, change his name, and voila!… he’s now a woman. That’s ridiculous. I think you’re the one who needs an education.
You label @Clark35 “troll” simply because you disagree with him. Pretty typical of your type.
Bee Gaga
There’s two little queen flies up in here I keep hear buzzing around, does anywhere else here that? No? Insignificant I guess. Next topic! Jaida looks amazingly beautiful, good for her. I remember watching her on the show not that long ago.She wouldn’t have won no way but she was good for what she was with her theatrics.
aliengod
It may be queen flies. You can always find them hovering around bull shit.
jwtraveler
@GayMafiaKingpin: I completely agree with you. I confess I am not completely comfortable with the idea of transexuality nor do I really understand it, but on one thing I am absolutely certain: People deserve to be treated with respect whoever they are, and who they are is how they believe they are. But fact is fact: Transsexuals can not change their DNA…yet.
(I teach immigrants at a gov’t funded non-profit. From time to time they are required to fill out forms with personal and demographic information. There are some questions about race and ethnicity. They frequently ask me which box to check. I always say: You choose whatever YOU think you are. YOU decide.)
DarkZephyr
@Clark35: “Nothing we are writing is bigoted against trans people.”
To the contrary it is VERY bigoted and VERY disrespectful. You are You have NO respect for their identities whatsoever. Not one drop. You know, homophobic bigots use *identical* language to the language you are employing in defense of your deplorable attitude. Homophobes will often protest that what they are saying is NOT bigoted, its just “the truth” or “the facts”. Are you really so blind that you do not see any similarities between what you are saying and what they say? You really AREN’T better than them and in fact I think you are *worse* because you have an understanding of what such marginalization and disrespect and invalidation of your identity feels like and yet this DOESN’T give you pause AT all. Your claim of not being bigoted rings even more falsely after I read your follow up comments to other posters. You have made it clear that you are annoyed with Trans people. You don’t care about the facts because you have animus towards them. Period. Do the trans people you know realize that you are annoyed by them so intensely?
@Bee Gaga: Ha ha ha! I am living for your initial comment to Aliengod about being a German Shepherd. It was perfect!
Clark35
@Bee Gaga: There’s two little queen flies up in here I keep hear buzzing around, does anywhere else here that?
Yes you’re one of them, and it’s just one bee not two flies. But you don’t even know the different between “here” and “hear”.
Clark35
DarkZeypher TL;DR. Just because you want what myself and others are posting to be “disrespectful”, “bigotry”, and “transphobia” does not actually make it any of those things.
The trans people I know agree with me about a lot of what I wrote especially with how butthurt and offended some TS/TG people get over everything, the push for pointless things like gender neutral pronouns, how trans people want to identify as the opposite gender yet get angry at “cisgender” or “cis” people who are not trans, how not everyone that’s LGB is required to find trans people attractive, want to fuck them, or date them, and that trans people who become walking carictures of the opposite gender like a lot of female TS/TG women, and lots of transmen become are annoying and they don’t know the first thing about actually being really feminine or masculine.
Clark35
DarkZeypher TL;DR. Just because you want what myself and others are posting to be “disrespectful”, “bigotry”, and “transphobia” does not actually make it any of those things.
The trans people I know agree with me about a lot of what I wrote especially with how butthurt and offended some TS/TG people get over everything, the push for pointless things like gender neutral pronouns, how trans people want to identify as the opposite gender yet get angry at “cisgender” or “cis” people who are not trans when this is completely pointless, that trans people can be some of the most biphobic and homophobic people there are, that it’s stupid how the trans community is full of professional victims who do nothing but whine and get involved in stupid issues that don’t concern them like that poor boy in Ohio, how not everyone that’s LGB is required to find trans people attractive, want to fuck them, or date them, and that trans people who become walking caricatures of the opposite gender like a lot of female TS/TG women, and lots of transmen become are annoying and they don’t know the first thing about actually being really feminine or masculine.
GayMafiaKingpin
@Clark35: Funny that you would think it’s very easy to tell when someone is trans, except, how would you know when you don’t know? You have a confirmation bias. You see someone who is obvious so you think that you can identify them all. Meanwhile there are plenty that you never notice and would not know that your missed.
GayMafiaKingpin
So many geneticists in the LGBT community all of a sudden, all concerned about DNA. Next time the right wing conservative bigots start spewing their ill-informed hated in our direction, remember the things you’ve said here. Remember the little girl who jumped in front of a semi because her parents were just like you, and would not accept her as she was, and insisted that she was a boy, because that’s how she was born.
jayj150
Simply stating that hormones can’t change one’s DNA is not hateful. Assuming that one is bigoted simply for stating scientific facts is what is hateful. I celebrate diversity and gender-non-conformism, I think everyone should be able to live their lives and pursue their interests as they please, without having to worry about stereotypical gender norms. I just don’t think body modification and medical treatment are necessary for that. I think transgenderism, at least in the case of people who prior to transition identified as gay or lesbian people, is a desperate measure to conform to normality, and I think this need to transition is driven by internalized homophobia, by a need to be “normal”, by a need to conform. But again, that’s my opinion, and I have every right to state it, although it certainly doesn’t mean I don’t respect the right of people to live as they please.
Another thing, GayMafiaKingpin said: “Sex = what’s between your legs. Gender = is how you identify mentally..”. Exactly, thank you, you said it perfectly and validated the point several of us are trying to make: Sex is immutable and it has nothing to do with this cultural(and frankly harmful) construct called gender. So yes, she can identify as a woman, change her name, SSN, demand that every one call her a woman(I don’t have a problem with that), but every time she has sex with her boyfriend, they are having homoSEXual sex. Stating that is not hateful, and if it is, then you are a hateful person, too.
And finally, you can save your patronizing ‘why can’t we get along’ lecturing. Transgenderism is a conservative movement. It’s not a coincidence that the most rabidly homophobic countries in the world(Iran, India, etc.) are also extremely pro-trans. The fact is, they too see it as a way to get people to conform. Iran, the same country that publicly hangs 13 year old boys for being gay, actually subsidizes surgical transition. Because, obviously, a ‘ straight woman’ is always better than an effeminate gay man. There are countless cases of gay men who have been forced to transition or face death. I want you to let that sink for a moment. Conform to our gender norms and mutilate your body or face death. I URGE YOU TO SEARCH Iran “Sex change” Soloution- BBC NEWSNIGHT. You will never hear of that on US media, because while gay men are being forced to genital mutilation, transwomen are being misgendered out there, and that obviously is far more important and shocking. Meanwhile, back in 2013, only a couple of months after legally recognizing a ‘third gender’, India criminalized homosexual sex, even between consenting adults. You heard plenty of celebration for the first news here and in other gay news outlets in the US, but very little condemnation for the other one. See the pattern?. How about a more local example: Pat Robertson, one of the most virulently homophobic activists in American history, the same one who compares homosexuality to necrophilia and zoophiia, the same guy who calls homosexual sex diabolic, has repeatedly said transgenderism is simply a ‘medical problem’ that should be taken care of, that is, that transpeople should be helped to become “normal” by transitioning into the right gender, so they can stop being gay.
Do what you please with your lives, names, bodies, etc. We’ll call you whatever you want us to call you to make you feel ‘complete’. But don’t call us bigots simply because we accept and recognize our bodies and sex, and are perfectly happy being gay and lesbian people while still refusing to succumb to the demands of this homophobic society to conform.
biguy
Gay guys that deny trans identities are the same losers who preach bi erasure. Don’t bother checking your privilege, just pound sand.
Clark35
@biguy: Actually no they’re not. Bisexuality is pretty common and both women and men can be bisexual, and I know some gay men who as you put it “deny trans identities” and they do not preach bi erasure.
Clark35
@GayMafiaKingpin: Wrong. It’s pretty obvious when someone is trans, and that’s because anyone can tell that they’re simply the sex or gender they were born imitating the opposite gender via hormones and cosmetic surgery.
Clark35
@jayj150: Well said. I have seen a documentary about trans people in Iran, and the majority of “trans women” in Iran are actually femme gay men who think that becoming a “woman” will get them a man.
You also have people who do the same like the guy in the above article.
Bee Gaga
@jayj150: How about you try reading? No one here has called these people hateful for stating that, they call them hateful because a) they CLEARLY have some kind of animus against trans people as they continue to whine like little children about things they all supposedly do (as if they’re a monolith) and they keep calling this woman who CLEARLY identifies as a woman and stated in the above article that she uses female pronouns a boy and a he. THAT’S what is hateful. b) she said her mother didn’t know she was changing her DNA and then clarified in the next clause “my biological makeup” everyone isn’t a geneticist so she probably doesn’t know the difference. Taking hormones does, indefinitely, change your biological makeup. How? They take testosterone blockers and estrogen shots which decrease their testosterone level and increase their estrogen hence the growing of breast and minimal hips and changing of facial structure and softness as well as a myriad of other things. So, her statement that she was changing her DNA/biological makeup is not entirely wrong, she just used the wrong word the first time around. Who cares if her and her boyfriend are technically having “homosexual sex” he identifies as straight and that’s what he is. Sexuality isn’t as fluid as conservative “literalist” like yourself would hope it is.
Now, for your asinine comments about transgender people. You…do know the world doesn’t revolve around the west right? It always amazes me the level of arrogance and hubris around white people people in the west who just think the entire world must conform to them. These countries and civilizations have existed for thousands of years, they have their own cultural norms. Transgender people have always been a part of these cultures before the encroaching white colonialist came up trying to make the entire world in their image. There are tons of African cultures, native american cultures and asian cultures which have exalted transgender (or as native americans call them, two-spirit) people as godly descendants due to them, as they saw it, being equal parts man and equal parts woman. Embodying both sides of the sex dichotomy therefore being the embodiment of wholeness. If you actually KNEW history instead of looking at the world from your white western lens then you would know this. The acceptance of transgender people in eastern societies isn’t a sign of “conservatism” it’s a sign of their cultural practices and cultural norms and expectations which date back to before America was even an idea.
I also find it quite hilarious that, while the western world largely has it the opposite (being extremely pro-gay but ignorant on the trans front) you see that as ok, but when eastern countries are, as you put it, “extremely” pro-trans and (so far from the truth, how about you watch the same documentaries where you see those same trans people being murdered in astoundingly high rates and having to live in slums among each other because of society’s disapproval) but ignorant on the gay front that’s all of a sudden conservatism. Your bias is showing. You clearly want it to be and think it should be “gay people are normal and should be acceptable to everyone, trans people are people too but they aren’t normal therefore their acceptance should come after gay people, not before it. If it does then that shows conservatism and gender norms.” As for Pat Robertson…what’s your point? People have different opinions. Gay people are by far some of THE most rac!st and misogyn!stic (especially) people I’ve ever met in my life. Is the gay rights movement suddenly “conservative” because the same people preaching gay acceptance will cross the street at the sign of a black person walking minding their own business or call a woman a b***h and tell her her vagina is disgusting in conservation. Hardly. Him being “pro-trans” according to you (calling them mentally ill is not a positive) while also being anti-gay doesn’t show transgender rights as a conservative movement anymore than dan savage being pro-gay and misogyn!stic and transphob!c and borderline rac!st show gay rights movement as conservative. That’s foolish. Not to mention Robertson isn’t even “pro” either of them. He is being accepting of trans people because he sees it as a mental illness, the remedy being a sex-change, is no different than him seeing being gay as a choice/illness and the remedy being conversion therapy. The only difference is one is the intended result for (some) trans people (though it isn’t a mental illness anymore too) while the latter has been denounced by all major psychology guilds (and is also not a mental illness anymore).
Clark35
BeeGaga=a troll that posts walls of text that everyone ignores.
DonW
@Clark35: Something tells me the “trans people you know,” who happen to agree with you 100%, are about as real as Sarah Palin’s gay friend.
Further, stop claiming to speak for “we LGBs” when you try to denigrate and marginalize the transgender movement. You don’t speak for this “G.” I recognize that trans people face many of the same struggles that we have. They certainly have the same enemies, who would be happy to watch us fight amongst ourselves. United we stand, divided we fall.
Bee Gaga
@DonW: As I told a previous commenter, don’t bother with him. He’s clearly a troll. Who really talks like “I’m the voice of LGB people” and “all my trans friends agree with me that all trans people are professional victims and are toxic to the LGB blah blah blah” no sane, legitimate person speaks like that. Miss thing is a troll, not a very good one at that. It was evident when she called that little trans girl who killed herself a boy just to be an a$$hole. Don’t feed the trolls.
moonman157
@Clark35 how do you not see that you’re using the EXACT same arguments that anti-gay bigots use all the time? Basically you’re saying that you’re not transphobic, you’re just sick and tired of trans people complaining about how they’re treated. Anti-gay bigots use that argument all the time! And claiming how LGB people are attacked all the time by trans people is the exact same kind of self-pitying victimhood that the right uses all the time. WE’RE BEING ATTACKED FOR OUR BELIEFS. GAY PEOPLE ARE BEING INTOLERANT! That’s exactly what you’re saying about trans people. You’re just as moronic and hateful as right wing pundits and preachers. You don’t get to demand that people treat you with a certain dignity and respect and then deny that to others simply because you’re unwilling to take the time to listen to and understand people who are unlike you.
Clark35
@DonW: I do have trans friends, who do agree with what I posted. But I don’t need to prove anything to trolls like you, bee gaga, and moonman.
LGB people are attacked by Trans people. You clearly haven’t been paying attention to how Trans people constantly go on about “cis” this, or “cisgender privilage”, and other nonsense.
If someone wants to identify as trans that’s OK by me but they should just identify as Trans and not as the opposite gender since despite how many hormones they take, or how many cosmetic surgeries they have they’re never going to be the opposite gender biologically.
hn99428
@Clark35: hormone treatment can actually change your dna by methylation, so what she is saying is not incorrect. Maybe you should read up a bit on epigenetics.
gauty
@hn99428: No but like, hear me out; you’re still a troll. You must not have the most fulfilling life that this is the kind of thing that gets you off, I’m sorry man. I’d say it gets better, but people like you are what makes it worse for everybody else, so you don’t really deserve the sentiment lol. Say hi to your “trans friends” for me! Or take your medication, mental illness is neither a trivial nor a humorous matter.
@Bee Gaga: Respect that you have the energy to engage with the troll so eloquently.
@GayMafiaKingpin: Marry me. You seem like my type.
Clark35
@hn99428: Nice try. Hormones damage DNA, they do not change it and a Trans-person will always biologically and genetically be the gender that they were born no matter how many hormones they take, or how much cosmetic surgery they get.