Transgender teen Jazz Jennings is not only getting a show about her life on TLC, but will also be featured in an ad campaign for a major beauty brand. Here’s why this matters to all of us, trans- and cisgender alike.
Jennings will be part of an ad campaign for Johnson & Johnson’s “Clean and Clear” exfoliating scrub that uses the tag line, “See the real me.” In her ad, Jennings talks about growing up and discovering her identity.
This is a landmark in the same way that actor Laverne Cox’s TIME magazine cover was. To have a transgender person, and a teen at that, star in a national campaign for a major beauty brand is a big deal. It’s a step forward for transgender visibility and (I hope) understanding. Trans youth need role models.
I was reminded recently that although sexual orientation and gender identity are two very different things, we all have a vested interest in supporting equality and understanding in both arenas, no matter how we identify. An article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegraph, about same-sex parents fighting to be recognized as parents, quotes from the head of a group called Texas Values, who said:
Redefining marriage equals businesses owners having their religious and conscience rights trampled on by government officials. Redefining marriage equals removing the words mother and father from Texas birth certificates and being replaced by Parent 1 and Parent 2 as proposed by a new bill. Redefining marriage and sexuality leads to local laws that allow men to enter bathrooms with little girls.
Let’s review: Transgender women are not men. They’re not going into a bathroom to molest anyone; they’re going in to pee. These “bathroom scare” tactics are a staple of those trying to limit transgender people’s rights. And opponents of LGBTQ rights are using them in conjunction with scare tactics about marriage and parental issues to try and limit us all, whether L, G, B, T, Q, or combinations thereof. Let’s show them that lumping us all together to scare people won’t work—it will just make us stronger and more united.