Jodie Rogers and her mom, Fran, are passionate about equality for transgender people because for them it's personal. Jodie is transgender and when she told her mom, Fran was immediately accepting of Jodie's female gender identity.
Although Jodie's relationship with her mother was always positive, Jodie did not receive the same acceptance when she attended college in Phoenix. Jodie asked college administrators to inform professors and staff that she wanted them to use her preferred name, instead of her legal name. Despite her attempts to have her gender identity respected, she was routinely discriminated against, called by the wrong name and given a hard time about her appearance. The experience was draining for both mother and daughter.
Now, they want to help make sure transgender people don’t experience the same feeling of exclusion. They want to educate the public at large that transgender people are just like everyone else—they want to learn, provide for themselves and their families, and be judged solely on their performance and qualifications.