Wish I Didn't Know

Message from a ballet dancer.

Original Article

Former Star Of ‘The L Word’ Kicked Off Plane For Kissing Her Girlfriend (WIDK)

Posted to WIDK by Emily Moore

(Daily Mail) — Former ‘The L Word’ star Leisha Hailey complained in a stream of Twitter messages on Monday that she and a girlfriend were kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight in a dispute over their kissing on a plane.

Hailey, 40, tweeted that a flight attendant had told her that Southwest ‘was a “family” airline and kissing was not ok’, and that she and her companion were then ‘escorted off the plane for getting upset about the issue’.

‘SouthwestAir endorses homophobic employees,’ she tweeted. ‘Since when is showing affection toward someone you love illegal? I want to know what Southwest Airlines considers a “family”.’

She went on to tweet: ‘Boycott SouthwestAir if you are gay. They don’t like us.’

Hailey, who starred on Showtime network’s ‘The L Word’ as Alice, a bisexual magazine writer and radio host, also demanded a public apology.

The 40-year-old has also had roles on Grey’s Anatomy, Drop Dead Diva and CSI and is part of the electropop duo band, Uh Huh Her.

The airline issued a statement saying initial reports it received about the incident ‘indicate that we received several passenger complaints characterizing the behaviour as excessive’.

‘Our crew, responsible for the comfort of all customers on board, approached the passengers based solely on behaviour and not gender,’ the airline said. ‘The conversation escalated to a level that was better resolved on the ground, as opposed to in flight.’

The statement concluded: ‘We regret any circumstance where a passenger does not have a positive experience on Southwest and we are ready to work directly with the passengers involved to offer our heartfelt apologies for falling short of their expectation.’

An airline spokesman declined to comment beyond the prepared statement.

The incident comes a little over three weeks after another celebrity, Green Day rocker Billie Joe Armstrong, was complained he was booted from a Southwest flight in Oakland, California, because he was wearing his baggy pants too low.

This isn’t the first time Southwest Airlines has been accused anti-gay remarks and actions, as RadarOnline.com previously reported, an unnamed pilot was heard over the radio — unaware it was on — complaining that his co-workers were ‘a continuous stream of gays and grannies and grandes’ he doesn’t care to socialize with in between stops.

An hour before the airline posted a link to the statement on its Twitter page, Hailey was retweeting a comment calling attention to a page on the Southwest website where the airline had highlighted its ‘outreach and commitment to the GLBT community’.

Southwest is the official airline of GLAAD and other similar groups.

Original Article

Android App Asks, ‘Is My Son Gay?’ (WIDK)

Posted to WIDK by Bianca Coombs

(Athima Chansanchai, msnbc.com) - Now on sale on the Android Market: an app that asks — and purports to answer — “Is my son gay?”

On the app page, here’s the pitch: “You’re questioning yourself? 20 questions to know more about your son. After this test you’ll have the proven answer to a question you might have since maybe a long time.”

The only sample questions we saw on that page were these:

* Does he like to dress well: is he very careful when choosing his outfits and selecting brands?

* Does he like football?

Now, I don’t know about you, but a Yes followed by another Yes describes a lot of men I know, including my brother. My recently married brother.

So now, I had to see what the rest was all about. So I paid $2.69 for the English version of the app (there’s also a French version) and scrolled through the test.

Other questions — typos and all — included:

* Before he was born, did you wish for a girl?

* Has he ever been in a fight?

* Does he read the sports page in the newspaper?

* Is his best friend a girl?

* Does he like team sports?

* Is he modest?

* Is he a fan of divas (Madonna, Britney Spears)?

* Does he spend a long time in the bathroom?

* Does he piercings in his tongue, nose or ears?

* Do you wonder about your son’s sexual orientation?

* Are you divorced?

* Does he like musical comedies?

* Has he ever introduced you to a girlfriend?

* Is his father a very authoritarian person?

* Within your family, is the father absent at all?

* During his childhood, was he timid or discreet?

* Does he have a complicated relationship with his father?

* Does he take a long time to do his hair?

I answered as if my imaginary son were a sports fan, whose best friend is another guy, who does like to spend time getting ready, has divorced parents and a “complicated relationship with his father,” who does not care for divas or musical comedies. This is what the app churned out as an answer:

Your son is a normal young man: modern and concerned about taking care of himself assuming some feminine habits while maintaing his attraction to girls. However, he may have already had some homosexual experiences with his best friend. These things happen. It is more and more usual in these times to maximize pleasures without taboo.

Wow. So this algorithm seems to weigh heavily on “Yes” answers to the father and best friend questions, because I had another friend do the same test using her husband as an example and he doesn’t have divorced parents, gets along fabulously with his father and counts her as his best friend:

Don’t worry, your son is not gay. Get ready to become a mother-in-law! You’ll soon have to be accepted by your future daughter-in-law. There’s a great chance that you’ll become a grandmother with all the pleasures that this brings.

We tried to reach the developer of the app, but links for “emmene-moi” (which means “take me”) led nowhere, as did the contact Gmail address from the app.

Original Article

Gay Soldier Comes Out to Father on YOUTUBE as ‘Don’t Ask’ Policy Ends - VIDEO (WIDK)

Posted to WIDK by Bianca Coombs

(Liz Goodwin, The Lookout) - The military’s ban on openly gay service officially ended at midnight, and already one member of the Air Force has shared a video of his personal journey out of the closet.

A 21-year-old servicemember who had been keeping an anonymous vlog about his quest to come out to his girlfriend, family, and comrades posted a video of his call to his father this morning to tell him he is gay. His father pauses before saying, “I still love you son. Doesn’t change our relationship.”

You can watch the video below, sensitive readers be warned that he uses a small amount of profanity toward the end.

SEE VIDEO HERE

Soldiers past and present have shared their experiences serving under the now-defunct policy in a new book called “Our Time: Breaking the Silence of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’” The book is edited by 1st Lt. Josh Seefried, who organized a group of 4,000 closeted servicemembers called “OutServe” to anonymously advocate for repeal. He shed his pseudonym for the first time today in a New York Times profile.

A second lieutenant in the Marines writes in the book about how a fellow officer, who knew he was gay, saved him from an awkward encounter in a bar. His fellow Marines were pressuring him to hit on a woman at the bar, when his friend, Adam, intervened. “As more and more of our friends started calling me out, I felt myself reaching a point that felt something like panic,” he writes. Adam deflected the attention by going to talk to the woman himself. “It’s difficult to describe how happy I felt to have made a friend like that.”

Jonathan Cagle, a combat medic in the Army National Guard, remembered how painful it was to come home after a deployment in Afghanistan and not be able to embrace his boyfriend. “My boyfriend just had to stand there, a family friend, and politely shake my hand,” he writes.

“Coming home from deployment can be a horrible time for a gay soldier,” writes Kenneth Sprague, who has been deployed with the Army twice. “While everyone else has friends, family, loved ones there to greet them, your circle of gay or lesbian friends can’t really attend, can’t run up and hug you and give you a kiss and tell you how much they love you and missed you and are so glad you came home safe. You’re so paranoid, you don’t even want them there, to make sure nothing slips.”

The parents of Army Corporal Andrew Wilfahrt, who was killed in action earlier this year, shared how supportive their son’s unit was. “People in his unit knew that he was gay, the wives knew, the girlfriends knew—people knew, nobody cared,” his mother, Lori said. “He proved himself first that he was a hard worker and he was a loyal firend, and hew as going to take care of them when he could and when he needed to. The other part just didn’t matter.” His father added, “Being gay was the least interesting thing about him.”

Original Article

‘What Do I Have To Do To Make People Listen?’ - Bullied Gay Teen Commits Suicide (WIDK)

Posed to WIDK by Emily Moore

(Rachel Quigley, Daily Mail) — A 14-year-old boy who blogged about being suicidal due to being incessantly bullied at school has been found dead outside his home in an apparent suicide.

Jamey Rodemeyer, from Buffalo, New York, cried for help online for months before his death and his family and friends said suicide was a popular topic with him.

He regularly posted about being bullied at school and how people would launch gay insults at him.

But what was worse for Jamey, was that when he wrote of his pain and frustrations and cried for help in his blog postings, students at his school started to bully him online.

About 12 months ago on his Formspring account - which permits anonymous posts - other students started making gay references towards him.

‘JAMIE IS STUPID, GAY, FAT ANND UGLY. HE MUST DIE!’ read one post.

Another read: ‘I wouldn’t care if you died. No one would. So just do it :) It would make everyone WAY more happier!’

On September 9, Jamey wrote on his Tumblr site: ‘I always say how bullied I am, but no one listens. What do I have to do so people will listen to me?’

The day before he wrote: ‘No one in my school cares about preventing suicide, while you’re the ones calling me [gay slur] and tearing me down.’

He put up a separate post that day letting everyone know it was National Suicide Prevention Week.

But still no one listened.

On Saturday night he posted a lyric from Lady Gaga’s song The Queen on his Facebook page which said: ‘Don’t forget me when I come crying to heaven’s door.’

On 1.30am on Sunday morning, he left two final messages on one of his blogs saying he was looking forward to seeing his great grandmother, who recently died, and one as a tribute to Lady Gaga, thanking her.

‘He was the sweetest, kindest kid you’d ever know. He would give all his heart to you before he gave any to himself’

His mother Tracy Rodemeyer , told Buffalo News: ‘He touched so many hearts, so many people. I didn’t realize how many people he touched.

‘He was the sweetest, kindest kid you’d ever know. He would give all his heart to you before he gave any to himself.’

She said that her son had been questioning his sexuality over the last year and that his fellow students picked up on it and used it to taunt and bully him.

Friends of the 14-year-old reported the message posts to the school guidance counsellors, she said, but by then it may already have been too late.

‘He was totally against bullying. He has had issues since fifth grade. He had suicidal tendencies back then,’ she told Buffalo News.

She said she tried to talk to him on numerous occasions and asked him to talk to her about what was wrong, but he assured her that he was OK.

Last weekend the family went to a camping spot they would frequently go to and she said he seemed really happy.

Mrs Rodemeyer said: ‘He used to cry about the taunts from his peers but they didn’t seem to phase him this time. Lately, he’s been blowing them off, or at least we thought he was.’

Olivia Rinaldo, an eighth-grader at Heim Middle School, said she was drawn to his outwardly upbeat and extroverted personality. He made friends of the friendless, she said.

‘He was always putting people first. He always wanted other people to smile, even on the worst of his days.’

She said even though he was seeing a social worker and a therapist, not enough was done to help him.

A letter was sent home to students on Monday morning informing them that he was dead.

Dale Bauer, a licensed school social worker and clinical social worker at North, said: ‘We make it apparent to the kids that there’s help all day long and in the days to come.’

Jamey was a new student at Williamsville North High School and the student known to have committed suicide there since 2010. Joe Chearmonte, a junior honor student, died in February of last year.

Original Article

‘Dancing With The Stars’ Premiere: Chaz Bono Cha-Chas Into Millions of Homes (WIDK)

(ABC By LAUREN EFFRON and KEVIN DOLAK) — Chaz Bono cha cha’d onto the floor on the season premiere of “Dancing With The Stars” along with his partner Lacey Schwimmer, shimmying and shaking his way into millions of homes across America.

The judge’s verdict when the duo completed their number Monday night? A respectable 17 out of 30, with judge Carrie Ann Inaba telling Bono: “I think people have been waiting all night to see you Chaz and you did not disappoint. You can dance!”

“It felt good. It was fun. I really wanna enjoy every second of this, even the tough times,” Bono told “Nightline” anchor Cynthia McFadden.

“You’re in a state of nervousness all night. You don’t get to sit back and enjoy it … I had a great time doing it I think it was entertaining. I was in a total daze — you don’t think about the crowd,” he added. “I’d like to be back as long as I can.”

Controversy has surrounded Bono, 42, since producers of the hit ABC dancing reality competition announced in August that not only would he be a Season 13 cast member but also be paired with a female dance partner.

Backlash immediately erupted over his selection as the first transgender person to ever compete on the show. Various parenting, religious and political activists called for a boycott of the show, some saying that watching Bono would be “confusing for children.”

“I’m just a regular guy,” Bono said in a Sept. 6 interview with “Good Morning America.” “All these ideas that children shouldn’t watch me, I’m going to be confusing, all this stuff, it’s crazy.”

No stranger to the public eye, Bono was first introduced to the world as Chastity, a golden-haired little girl in the arms of her famous parents, Sonny and Cher, but underwent gender reassignment surgery last year and legally changing his name to Chaz.

“This is how I was born. I mean, there’s no doubt in my mind,” Bono told McFadden in a May interview.

A long-time advocate of LGBT issues, Bono has been outspoken about his life-altering decision to “transition,” changing physically female to male. He revealed the emotional process in his Emmy-nominated documentary, “Becoming Chaz,” and in his latest memoir, “Transition: The Story of How I Became a Man.”

Before signing on with “Dancing With the Stars,” Bono talked openly with “Nightline” about his decision to go under the knife.

“It’s actually pretty simple if you look at it,” Bono told McFadden in May. “We all in the womb start out as female and then hormones come and we either stay female or we become male. I think of it as hormones that, you know, went in the brain but not in the body, and that’s all being transgender is. It’s just that the sex of your body and the gender of the brain don’t match up.”

It took Bono nearly four decades to reach the point at which he decided he wanted to have gender reassignment surgery to become a male. The process began after Bono’s 40th birthday in March 2009, more than a decade after he had publicly come out as a lesbian.

Bono began receiving testosterone injections, which helped make his voice deeper and produced facial hair. He also had his breasts surgically removed.

“If you are a man and you have breasts, any man would want to have them removed,” Bono said in the May interview. “It is scary for a woman to think about it because it is something that they are really attached to. Being male and having breasts is about the worst thing I could imagine.”

Anatomically, Bono remains a woman from the waist down and said he doesn’t have any plans to undergo corrective surgery yet because that type of surgery is still risky.

“I’m just kind of waiting to see what happens and hoping that there are medical advances made and it gets a little better because right now the risk-reward ratio is just not quite right,” he said at the time. “The majority of [transgender people] don’t have bottom surgery because of that.”

Original Article

BRILLIANT GENES: Glow In The Dark CATS Could Help Find Cure For HIV (WIDK)

Posted to WIDK by Emily Moore

(Fiona Macrae, Daily Mail) — Glowing kittens with resistance to disease have been created by scientists searching for a cure for AIDS.

The domestic cats had their DNA modified with a gene that fights off an HIV-like virus and a second one – from a fluorescent jellyfish – that makes their bodies shine green under ultraviolet light. The purpose of the study was to show how a natural protein that prevents macaque monkeys developing Aids can do the same in cats.

The two genes are linked and the jellyfish gene is used to track the other one for the protein.

Shining a UV light on the cats produced an eerie green glow, confirming that the protein was being made in their tissues and that the technique had worked.

The genetically modified cats’ creators say the research will speed up the search for vaccines and treatments against HIV, the Aids virus that has claimed more than 30million lives around the world.

With HIV-like viruses also wreaking havoc among felines, from domestic moggies to big cats, the research could improve animal health.

In future, people could buy pets that are resistant to numerous diseases, removing the need for frequent and expensive trips to the vet for vaccination.

Novelty glow-in-the-dark breeds are also a possibility.

But critics say the technique takes a high toll on animal welfare and that scientists should be reducing the number of animals they experiment on.

The researchers, from the respected Mayo Clinic in the U.S., used harmless viruses to transfer genes into eggs removed from pet cats during routine spaying.

One gene makes a fluorescent protein, the other produces a protein that fights off feline immunodeficiency virus, or FIV, the cat version of HIV. The eggs were then fertilised through IVF and implanted in surrogate mothers.

Twenty-two attempts led to the birth of five kittens – three of which survived, the journal Nature Methods reports.

Two were healthy but one suffered medical problems, although the researchers do not believe they were linked to the genetic manipulation.

The anti-viral gene was also present and cells taken from the kittens were able to resist infection with FIV better than those from normal cats.

Two of the cats went on to have kittens of their own, all of which carried the new genes.

Original Article

Walmart Worker Burglarized For SEX CHANGE

Posted to WIDK by Bianca Coombs

PRESCOTT, Ariz. (Associated Press) — Police in Arizona say two Walmart employees burglarized the store where they worked to pay for a car and a sex change operation.

Police arrested 23-year-old Spencer Danger Cullen and 19-year-old Adriano Valdes Altiveros III on Friday.

Reinhardt says Altiveros reportedly told detectives he stole cash to buy a car. He says Cullen told police she stole the money to go forward with a sex change operation.

Cullen and Altiveros remain in custody. The Yavapai County public defender’s office would not say Wednesday whether the pair had been appointed attorneys.

Prescott is about 80 miles north of Phoenix.

Original Article

Picture This - Sticker on Bengay Package (WIDK)

(WIDK) — Sticker on package of Bengay is sending you a message.

Source: Happy Place

See an interesting image?  Send it to us at info@fisherbrothersmedia.com

Original Article

1 Sperm Donor, 150 Brothers And Sisters - Without Limits Some Parents, Doctors Have Fears About Negative Consequences (WIDK)

Posted to WIDK by Bianca Coombs

(Herald Tribune By JACQUELINE MROZ) — Cynthia Daily and her partner used a sperm donor to conceive a baby seven years ago, and they hoped that one day their son would get to know some of his half siblings — an extended family of sorts for modern times.

So Ms. Daily searched a Web-based registry for other children fathered by the same donor and helped to create an online group to track them. Over the years, she watched the number of children in her son’s group grow.

And grow.

Today there are 150 children, all conceived with sperm from one donor, in this group of half siblings, and more are on the way. “It’s wild when we see them all together — they all look alike,” said Ms. Daily, 48, a social worker in the Washington area who sometimes vacations with other families in her son’s group.

As more women choose to have babies on their own, and the number of children born through artificial insemination increases, outsize groups of donor siblings are starting to appear. While Ms. Daily’s group is among the largest, many others comprising 50 or more half siblings are cropping up on Web sites and in chat groups, where sperm donors are tagged with unique identifying numbers.

Now, there is growing concern among parents, donors and medical experts about potential negative consequences of having so many children fathered by the same donors, including the possibility that genes for rare diseases could be spread more widely through the population. Some experts are even calling attention to the increased odds of accidental incest between half sisters and half brothers, who often live close to one another.

“My daughter knows her donor’s number for this very reason,” said the mother of a teenager conceived via sperm donation in California who asked that her name be withheld to protect her daughter’s privacy. “She’s been in school with numerous kids who were born through donors. She’s had crushes on boys who are donor children. It’s become part of sex education” for her.

Critics say that fertility clinics and sperm banks are earning huge profits by allowing too many children to be conceived with sperm from popular donors, and that families should be given more information on the health of donors and the children conceived with their sperm. They are also calling for legal limits on the number of children conceived using the same donor’s sperm and a re-examination of the anonymity that cloaks many donors.

“We have more rules that go into place when you buy a used car than when you buy sperm,” said Debora L. Spar, president of Barnard College and author of “The Baby Business: How Money, Science, and Politics Drive the Commerce of Conception.” “It’s very clear that the dealer can’t sell you a lemon, and there’s information about the history of the car. There are no such rules in the fertility industry right now.”

Read entire article here.

Original Article

Rabbi Pairs Up Gays With Lesbians For Chance At Conventional Family Life (WIDK)

Posted to WIDK by Emily Moore

SHILO, West Bank (Tia Goldenberg, AP) — Rabbi Arele Harel offers an unconventional solution for Orthodox Jewish gay men who want to raise a conventional family: He fixes them up with Orthodox lesbians.

His matchmaking service, which has just gone online, has met criticism on opposing fronts. Orthodox Jewish rabbis say Harel should be doing more to encourage gays and lesbians to try to change their sexual orientation. Liberal religious gay groups see Harel’s approach as a ploy to suppress homosexuality.

The matchmaking presents an array of challenges. The relationship may be loveless. The partners may be tempted to seek sexual satisfaction outside the marriage. And the couple may need assistance to get pregnant. But Harel insists he just wants to help people have children, an important commandment of Jewish law.

“The main aspiration here is parenthood,” said Harel, 36, from his home in the Jewish West Bank settlement of Shilo. “It allows them to become parents in a way that is permitted by religious Jewish law and prevents a conflict between their religious world and their sexual world.”

Most rabbis encourage gays to suppress their attractions, abstain from gay sex or undergo therapy to try to go straight. Harel believes some gays can alter their sexual orientation through therapy, and insists many do. The American Psychological Association has declared no solid evidence exists that such change is likely.

Harel said his method is meant for those who can’t change, yet want to remain observant and have children.

Harel began matching lesbians and gay men six years ago, he said, because he recognized a “deep distress” among people “facing a dead end road.”

More recently, Kamoha, a religious gay group, began receiving inquiries from gay men and lesbian women about this approach. Kamoha linked up with Harel and last month began publicizing the initiative on its Web site.

Harel says he has wed 12 couples, and several have had children. More than 80 people expressed interest in the matchmaking service when it was publicized by word-of-mouth, and since it went online two weeks ago, Harel says he has received dozens of emails.

“Rabbi Harel introduced us and there was a good initial click,” wrote Sari and Avi, a couple Harel set up, in a testimonial on Kamoha’s site. “It’s not love. It’s chemistry, a sense of understanding and partnership, trust and appreciation.”

Harel was unable to persuade the couples he has already wed to speak to the media. But Kamoha referred The Associated Press to a man who has applied for Harel’s services, a 35-year-old Orthodox Jew in the closet.

He has had casual sex with men but desperately wants to raise a family. He said he has dated numerous straight women; none of the relationships led to marriage.

“It is a risky experiment but there is no other choice,” said the man, who refused to give his name because he is hiding his sexual identity.

He said he was willing to forgo love if it means being able to have children. He wants to try to refrain from seeing men when he is married but would discuss the issue with his wife if that changed, he said.

Harel said as long as both parties are aware the other is dating, it would not be adultery in such a union. He said the same would not be true for a straight couple because they are sexually compatible and have no reason to look elsewhere. Jewish law forbids adultery.

Harel contends that gay and lesbian partners learn to love each other once children arrive. “Their love is based on parenthood. Parenthood is the glue and it’s strong.”

Harel leaves it to the couple’s discretion whether to divulge their sexual identities to their children but he recommends they consult with a professional first.

Potential candidates email Harel, who meets with them to assess if they are emotionally ready to be fixed up. Harel then picks a suitable match and introduces the parties. They are put in touch with therapists who are to assist them in their new life. Once they are married, they each pay around $400 for Harel’s service.

Israel’s secular majority has largely embraced the Western gay rights movement that has led to six cities, among them New York, legalizing same-sex marriage.

There is no gay marriage in Israel primarily because there is no civil marriage and all weddings must be done through the Jewish rabbinate, which does not marry gays and considers homosexuality a sin and a violation of Jewish law.

Gay adoption is officially illegal but some couples get around the law and surrogacy is an option for many same-sex couples. The partner of a parent can adopt the child of his or her partner. There are campaigns to allow for civil marriage which could eventually pave the way for legalizing gay marriage but Israel is far from both.

Still, Tel Aviv is considered one of the most gay-friendly cities in the world, with annual pride parades filling streets and rocking into late hours.

Among Orthodox Jews, homosexuality generally is considered an abomination. Gay observant Jews may be ostracized by their families and many opt to hide their sexual orientation. Only the more liberal streams of Judaism embrace gay couples and even gay rabbis.

In recent years, a number of religious gay groups have emerged, joining pride parades and demanding to be accepted while not going so far as to ask for religious recognition for their relationships.

The liberal religious gay group Havruta opposes Harel’s approach, saying it seeks to “erase” homosexuals from the Orthodox community.

“They are saying, ‘Changing them isn’t possible, but how else can we hide their existence? If we can’t fix them then let’s set them up with lesbians,’” said the group’s spokesman, Daniel Jonas.

Yonatan Gher, the head of the Jerusalem Open House, a gay community center and advocacy group, said he doesn’t judge the lifestyle choice Harel advocates, but hopes young religious homosexuals don’t feel pressured into choosing it.

Rabbis have criticized Harel’s method because it doesn’t try to discourage gays and lesbians from seeking to change their sexual orientation.

“There is an alternative,” said Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, from the Jewish West Bank settlement of Beit El. “When people hear voices that say you won’t succeed (to change), they think, ‘Why bother trying?’”

Original Article

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Picture This - Church Sign ‘Back Door’ (WIDK)

(WIDK) — WIDK reader Ed Young found this sign at a church in Moline, IL.

See an interesting sign?  Send it to us at info@fisherbrothersmedia.com

Original Article

Trapped In A Boys Body: Transgender 10-Year-Old Jackie Happier As A Girl - VIDEO (WIDK)

Submitted to WIDK by Emily Moore

(Huffington Post) — Turns out there are parents in the news who do the right thing. Jennifer and John of Ohio have a transgender 10-year-old child, and they support Jackie’s decision to live life as a girl.

Since she was 18-months-old, “it was always dancing, dress-up, ” says her mother Jennifer. Jackie loved the color pink and wearing ballerina outfits. She wanted sparkles and pretty shoes. So when Jackie was about two-years-old, Jennifer started looking on the Internet, she tells “Good Morning America.” That’s when she first learned about transgender and started to wonder. Jackie’s sister, Sagan, was the first to ask if she really wanted to be a girl. “Yeah,” she told her sister.

SEE VIDEO HERE

And when Jackie was just ten years old, she went to her mom, crying. “I’m a girl and I can’t do this anymore,” Jackie said. Without hesitation, Jennifer said, “It’s gonna be okay.” There was no judgment or disappointment.

Jackie’s family abandoned the pronoun “he.” At first, they only let her wear girls clothing at home, but eventually allowed her to live as a girl full-time, at school and elsewhere. When asked, Jackie’s father John says he has two daughters.

But, not everyone in the family has been as accepting as Jackie’s parents. Her grandfather is resistant. “I can not accept that a nine or ten-year-old can make decisions for himself that will be life lasting,” he tells GMA.

Although Jackie’s parents worry about the future — things like puberty and how Jackie might be treated later in life at work — for now, they are focused on her happiness. When Jackie looks in the mirror, all she sees is “a girl that’s a person,” she says.

Original Article