The 22-year-old shared a video responding to right-wing commentators, including conservatives like Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh and Candace Owens.
Jazz Jennings is hitting back at the haters.
In a video shared to her YouTube channel on Monday, the “I Am Jazz” star reacted to a series of clips and stories written about her, and shut down the apparent “misinformation” out there, including that she “regrets” early transitioning and that she’s “unhappy.”
The 22-year-old also directly addressed comments from conservative commentators, such as Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh and Candace Owens.
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“As a proud woman and a student at Harvard, I’ve been trying to focus on my education and myself,” Jazz wrote in the video description. “Unfortunately, conservative politicians and commentators like Ben Shapiro and Candace Owens are spreading harmful attacks and misinformation about me, my family, and the transgender community. It’s really hurtful and harmful to be misgendered, insulted, and have the existence of our community denied, so instead of ignoring them, I wanted to confront them directly.”
“In this video, I react live to some of their videos and comments, debunk their hateful rhetoric, and defend the validity and importance of transgender identities,” she continued. “I share my truth about my experiences as a proud transgender woman and hope that this video can be a powerful message of resilience for anyone who has faced discrimination or bigotry based on their gender identity or expression.”
The reality star added, “If you’re watching this video, I encourage you to do your own research and educate yourself about transgender identities and issues. Let’s work together to create a world where everyone can live authentically and without fear of discrimination.”
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The nearly 10-minute clip, which Jazz said is Part 1 of 2, began with the YouTuber introducing the video.
“I’ve been in school and college at Harvard, really working hard to just develop myself in so many different ways. And I haven’t really been posting on social media as much as I’d like to about myself and my life,” she explained. “So today I am just gonna do a little update video, and I’m also gonna combat some of the crazy things that people have been saying about me online.”
“It’s really, really disturbing some of the things that people have been saying,” Jazz added.
“They’ve been jumping to conclusions about my life based on certain clips, and I just wanna dispel a lot of those myths that are out there right now and let you know that I am an out and proud transgender woman. I am so happy to be me, and just me saying that should dispel everyone else saying what they’ve been saying.”
The LGBTQ activist then went on to address a variety of comments and headlines people have said and written about her, and explained why each of them was incorrect.
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Jazz first reacted to headlines claiming she “regrets” her early gender transitioning.
“I don’t know where people are coming up with this idea that I regret my early gender transitioning,” she said. “I have no regrets whatsoever. I am an out and proud woman. I love being me. I love my body. I love everything about being a woman. And that’s just who I am.”
Her brother then showed her a clip in which conservative commentator Matt Walsh seemingly misinterpreted a clip from her reality show, “I Am Jazz,” in which Jazz told her mom that she just wants to “feel like myself” and “be happy.”
“Jazz Jennings has quote unquote been living as a girl for years, but isn’t happy,” Walsh said, before showing the clip from the TLC series.
Sharing her thoughts, Jazz said, “It’s really hard to watch that because I know that I struggle with a lot of mental health issues. I have really severe anxiety a lot of the time, and I suffer with depression. But the thing is, a lot of people think that my mental health issues have to do with getting the surgery or me being transgender, and they associate those things together. And that’s just not the case.”
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“The surgery only brought me joy and happiness,” she continued. “People think that once you get the surgery, it’s all sunshines and rainbows. Everything’s great. Your life problems are solved. No, you’re still gonna face hardships. You’re still gonna have issues. And that was just one moment of me feeling like I lacked clarity and I felt cluttered and I didn’t feel like I had the sense of self that I wanted to in that moment. Because sometimes we all struggle. You know, sometimes we have those moments where we don’t know who we are or we don’t have that clarity and it causes us to break down.”
Jazz went on to note her confusion as to why people were associating her break down with her surgeries, pointing out that it’s not even featured in the clip.
“It is not me regretting my surgery. where do I say I regret my surgery in that clip? It’s me just having a moment,” she said. “Because we all have those moments where we face hardship or we’re get in our head. So I hope that brings, you know, a sense of clarity to all of those people out there who are saying that she regrets the surgery, she hates her body. She’s uncomfortable in her own skin, ’cause I don’t see any of that in that clip.”
The college student then proceeded to hit back at what she called misinformation written and said about her parents, such as Walsh’s accusations that her mother “brainwash[ed]” her into transitioning.
“So he may never fully come to terms with what happened. At least as long as his disgusting wretch of a mother is still alive,” said Walsh, who misgendered Jazz several times.
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Reacting to the clip, Jazz shared a lengthy — and somewhat heated — response.
“I don’t know why people like are so intent on bringing our community down. Like, why do you care?” she said. “Let us just be, let us be happy. Let us be ourselves. We’re not hurting anyone. You know, we need to celebrate each other in our diversity, not bringing each other down. And anytime you’re wishing death on anyone, I think you need to take a step back and look at yourself and your, you know, whatever’s going on with you.”
“My mom is not the abuser. People like him are the ones abusing us by saying these awful negative things about our community,” she continued, voice beginning to rise. You know, we are under attack. And it is clear in this video that there are people out there who wanna hurt us, who wanna see us fail, who wanna see us be miserable. And that’s really f—ed up because we’re not wishing that upon anyone. We just want people to open their eyes and see that we are beautiful. Everyone is beautiful, and everyone deserves to be their authentic self. Our messages are about love, about positivity.”
Jazz added, “And just to see someone like this saying such negative things, it’s … hurtful. It sucks. My whole life, I have faced bullying. I have faced people, you know, attacking me and my identity, and I just wish people would let me be? … It’s so frustrating.”
Watch the full clip, above. Jazz will drop Part 2 on Tuesday.
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