Janet Jackson Producing Documentary On Transgender Community

'Truth' will look at struggles of transgender people around the world.
By Gil Kaufman


Janet Jackson
Photo: MTV News

Janet Jackson has spent her career bouncing from TV to music and movies, but now the R&B legend is moving into the producing game.

According to the The Advocate, Jackson has agreed to executive-produce a documentary called "Truth" about the lives of transgender people around the world. Not only is Jackson, 46, working behind-the-scenes on the movie, but she is expected to sit for some on-camera interviews as well. The movie will start filming this summer. In a statement announcing the film, Jackson said she agreed to sign on to help stop discrimination against the transgender community.

"All people are very important to me. I've been fortunate to make friends and learn about very different lives," Jackson said in a statement. " 'Truth' is our small chance to ask that you try and understand someone who lives their life in a way that is a little bit different from yours, even though all of our hearts are the same. We want to stop the hate and find understanding."

Director Robert Jason, who previously directed the Style Network documentary "Style Exposed: Born Male, Living Female," about four transgender New Yorkers, promised that Jackson will play a prominent part in the finished product.

"Janet Jackson will take us on a visually innovative, cerebral journey through the turbulent lives of transgendered people of all ages around the world and their epic struggle for equality," he said in a statement announcing the project. "This film will highlight landmark mainstream stories and provide a glimpse at others that will change the gender landscape of the world forever. Just as it is hard to believe that there ever was a time when different components of society were required to use separate drinking fountains, it is as incredible that one's gender expression remains just such a target for discrimination."

Jackson's involvement in the documentary comes on the heels of last month's news that Against Me! singer Tom Gabel has come out as transgender
 and is now living as a woman, Laura Jane Grace. Gabel became the most high-profile major-label musician to undergo a gender transformation.

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