Jazz Jenningsis doing the dating dance — literally.
In PEOPLE’s exclusive look at Tuesday’s episode ofI Am Jazz,the transgender activist, 22, is on a double date — her first date in four years — with a fellow Floridian named Dayron, her brother, Sander and his “lady friend.”
“Look! Look!” he says after the instructor’s sassy demonstration.
The instructor then says, “You just wanna get a little groovy.”
“Oh, oh! OK!” says Jazz after watching the dance move. Touching the array of flowers on her head, she adds, “I’m leaving my crown on. This crown is staying on.”
“C’mon, c’mon!” says Dayron, grabbing Jazz’s arm and trying to get her to the center of the dance floor.
“I’m getting a little uncomfortable because Maria does her hair flip, and Dayron is kind of like ‘Jazz, you do it! You do it!'” Jazz admits in a confessional.
Stefanie Keenan/Getty
After Dayron tells Jazz he doesn’t know why she’s “nervous,” Jazz really starts to get inside her own head. She’s worried that she’s “projecting negative emotions” on the date.
Maria, the dancer instructor, then suggests a water break, which Jazz gratefully accepts.
“Hearing Dayron say I seem nervous kind of takes me off guard,” Jazz tells the cameras. “Because now, I just feel uncomfortable.”
Speaking to PEOPLE ahead of the latestI Am Jazzseason, the Harvard student said that one of the biggest storylines “is my love life, and where I’m going with that, and do I, or do I not find love?”
“All those questions will be answered,” she added.
And, as if simply putting herself out there as a young adult isn’t difficult enough, Jennings must also contend with the realities of dating as a transgender person.
“I wish people understood that dating as a trans person is really hard because transgender people are immediately judged and ostracized for who they are,” she said.
Jazz Jennings.John Lamparski/Getty
Jennings also explained that she wishes people could be more “empathetic, and accepting, and loving” when it comes to understanding the trans dating experience. Being a transgender woman doesn’t solely define her — it’s only one part of a much more nuanced identity.
“I wish people could be like, ‘You know what? I don’t care that you’re transgender. You’re just a woman to me. You’re beautiful. And I see that in you,'” she said of the “litmus test” her potential partners must pass. “And, yeah, one of the people that I date on the show, they express that, that they accept me for being a woman.”
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I Am Jazzairs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on TLC.
source: people.com
