Teen tells of what it’s like dating as a trans 15-year-old
Trans activist Jazz Jennings has opened up about what it is like to date as a transgender 15-year-old.
Jennings spoke to Oprah Winfrey that “boys aren’t really accepting” of her, but that she still gets herself out there.
She said: “I just go with the flow and see what happens.
“If boys like me and I like them back then, yeah, it’ll happen. But for the most part boys aren’t really accepting of me because I’m transgender. And therefore not many guys have crushes on me, at least at my school. They think that if they like me they’ll be called gay by their friends because they like another ‘boy,’” Jennings continued in the interview.
“They don’t see me as a girl.”
Jennings was diagnosed with gender dysphoria at age 5, and transitioned shortly after.
Her Oprah interview was not the first time she has spoken out about dating, however.
Speaking on TLC, Jennings said previously: “I’ve had a pretty rocky relationship with boys in the past… This one time this really cute boy liked me, and then once he found out I was transgender he started calling me ‘chick with a dick’ behind my back. Being trans has completely turned boys off liking me.”
She continued that friends are “always telling me that I just have to be myself, but it’s not that easy… [boys] always say hi to my friends, hug them and not me, and I’m just, like, right there and kind of being ignored and sometimes it hurts.”
However in the Oprah interview, she went on to say she was brought up to be confident, and to spring back.
Anti-LGBT hate group One Million Moms attacked Jennings last year.
The group said it has a major problem with Jennings and her attempts to “normalise the transgender lifestyle.”
The teen – who has racked up millions of views for video I Am Jazz on YouTube – also heads a skincare campaign for Clean & Clear that celebrates diversity, and appears on her own programme ‘I Am Jazz’
Check out the video preview of the Oprah interview below:
