Valerie Jackson
Refinery29.com, a website claiming that its mission is “to be the #1 new-media brand for smart, creative and stylish women everywhere,” has highlighted a Dallas trans woman’s comments on social media about the “pro-life” movement.
Last Friday morning, Jan. 27, Valerie Jackson posted a thought-provoking statement on her Facebook page which, in essence, calls out so-called “pro-life” proponents for only caring about certain lives. She reflected on her own mother, who was only 18 when Valerie was born. Acknowledging that abortion was a legal option for her mother then, Valerie suggests that a “pro-life” advocate would have worked hard to convince her mother not to have an abortion.
But “all these years later,” when Valerie came out as a transgender woman, would that same advocate have valued her life as much?
She wrote, “Then that same social conservative condemns and judges me for transitioning. Statistics are out folks! 41 percent of transgender and non-gender conforming people have attempted suicide compared to the national average of only 4.6 percent. … Shouldn’t they be trying to help me stay alive when I’m weak and vulnerable again? They say they value life so much, yet I know they see the news stories of us killing ourselves, being tortured, and murdered at record setting rates every year! Where’s the compassion, respect, and love for me now?”
In her article for Refinery29, under a headline about pro-life hypocrisy, Kimberly Truong notes, “Of course, beliefs within a movement can be wide, varied, and complicated — but Jackson makes some valid points, questioning a value that doesn’t always hold up even when it seems to be essential to the movement.”
You can read Truong’s brief article here, and Valerie’s post here.
And just in the interests of “full disclosure;” Valerie is part of the Dallas Voice family. She is the best friend and roommate of our advertising director, Chad Mantooth. So we are extra-special glad to see her thoughtful post getting some attention.