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Transgender advocate and I Am Jazz co-author empowers Hatters to be allies

May 27, 2017 | 8:58 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — I Am Jazz is one of the most highly challenged or banned pieces of literature in the United States.

The children’s picture book is based on the real-life experience of a transgender child named Jazz Jennings and told in her voice.

It’s co-authored by Jessica Herthel and on Saturday she was in Medicine Hat giving a presentation and book reading.

“I came to Medicine Hat today because I had read online an article about a transgender child who was taken away from her mom, because the mom had allowed the child to socially transition and wear the clothes she felt comfortable in,” said Herthel.

It was an article that left the American author in disbelief.

“As an American my perception is that everything in Canada is kind of fabulous and wonderful, and that this is a safe place to be LGBT.”

Herthel reached out to the child’s mother and was able to get in contact with her through email.

“I was grateful that she chose to reveal herself to me,” said Herthel. “I think she was touched that someone like me who really had no connection at all to Canada felt so passionate about coming here so that this child could meet me, and see that there’s a mom just like her mom who’s just fighting for all children.”

It was Herthel’s own children, none of which identify as LGBT she says, that spurred her advocacy.

“It was important to me that I raise them in a way that they felt compassionate towards all people,” she says. “I met Jazz and her mom and based on my own daughter’s ability to kind of learn what transgender meant, and move past it quickly, I realized it’s really adults who are making it complicated. Kids just want to be friends.”

Jennings has her own reality show on TLC that shares the same name as the book. In the trailer for this upcoming season it shows the 16-year-old and Herthel appearing on conservative internet sensation Tomi Lahren’s show.

“It didn’t make the show, but at the end she (Lahren) said ‘Look at us, just three girls trying to change the world’,” shared Herthel during her presentation.

The intimate setting of a classroom at Medicine Hat College was in stark contrast to the Calgary event Herthel attended a night before, but her message to both crowds was the same.

“I want every single person to realize that just being visible as a trans ally gives hope to so many kids who sometimes feel invisible.”