Update: Jennifer's story is now gaining traction in traditional media. Please help keep her story alive!
Miami Herals
Washington Times
Daily Mail
Jennifer Gable, a 32 year old Boise woman, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on October 9th, 2014. Although I never met her, she was my wife's friend of several years. They would share goofy conversations that Jennifer would take over with endless movie quotes and her fun personality, but they also shared some very sad conversations when my wife would try her best to talk her out of her darkest moments.
Jennifer Adrien Gable
Jennifer had a lot of struggles. She was born male and transitioned to Jennifer in her twenties. Her family would not accept her and turned their back on her. This is a pain that I can't truly imagine- that one's own parents could so hate the person that their child becomes, for such superficial reasons.
One would hope that, at least in death, a family could accept the person that passed as the whole sum of their parts. But even in death, that would not be true for Jennifer. When her body was transported to Twin Falls, Idaho for her funeral and burial, her family cut her hair, dressed her in a suit, and buried her as a man.
They cut her hair.
They dressed her in a suit.
And they buried her as a man.
THEY BURIED HER AS A MAN.
To say that this was the ultimate insult is not enough.
Jen deserved dignity. She deserved respect and caring.
She was brought into this world as a male and she wasn't comfortable in that skin. She sought freedom from that particular prison only to land in the separate but equal prison of no longer having a family.
She could be her true self, or she could have a family.
There was never another option granted to her.
Jen chose her true self. That takes an amount of strength that most of us can never comprehend.
When she did that, she lost her blood family, but she gained a whole new one.
A family that cares.
I want to walk through the world the way she did. I want the world to know that SHE was here, she mattered, she was loved.
My wife and I have made it our mission to give Jen the grave she deserves. We are asking for donations for either A) a new plot at a Boise cemetery where the people who knew her can mourn her (PLEASE NOTE: our intention is not to have Jennifer re-buried, only to have a gravestone where she can be remembered. Geoff will remain buried in Twin Falls.) or B) a bench at the Human Rights Park in Boise, with her name etched on it, so that no one ever forgets.
When Jen died, she suffered the ultimate indignity. We hope to correct that.
We set the goal at the gofundme page at $20K, but we are hoping to raise more in order to give Jen the memorial she deserves, and then to donate the rest to a Trans rights group that will honor her memory in practice.
Please donate to the Jennifer Gable STOP HATE fund here: Jennifer Gable STOP HATE fund
And look to the person sitting next to you, give them a hug or a kiss, and tell them how much they mean to you, because someday they might be gone and you won't have that chance.
Why do people wait until tragedy strikes to realize that kindness, compassion, and connection with people, no matter WHAT they've done or who they are... is all far more important than every other petty thing?
Jennifer Gable, September 29th, 2014