Jackie Shane, a black woman with short white hair. She wears an extravagant diamond necklace and a black satin gown. She looks aways.
Content warning for violence and implied hate crimes
"When you're different people are not sure how to approach you, so what I've done is, I've loved them first. I had to."
– Jackie Shane
Born on May 15, 1940, in Tennessee, United States of America, Jackie would go on to remember much of her childhood fondly. She was known as a smart child who knew her own mind. She began dressing in clothing traditionally associated with femininity quite early. Though she was assigned male at birth, she wore dresses publicly and grew out her hair, something that was relatively accepted by those around her. She recalled the harshest incident of discrimination during her childhood—at least due to her gender—was when a boy yelled and threw things at her. She responded by picking up a jumping rope and whipping it at him.
Jackie Shane described her childhood saying:
“I'd never had a problem, not once. Even in school, the other kids accepted me. So did their parents. There was something about me that drew them.”
She would credit her mother and grandmother for much of this, as they accepted her wholeheartedly from a young age. Though she was young, she learned something that many queer people never get the chance to learn: she deserved respect.
She was so self-assured that adults would often treat her as one of their own even from a young age, and many of her friends were teachers and parents of classmates who would go to her for advice. Though this was not the ideal situation for most children, she still made time for fun. She recalled a time when she and her little sister received draft letters by accident and both went directly to the office, Jackie dressed in a floor-length black gown, and joked with the officers. She announced that if they took her on she would not wake up before twelve, and would need a room designed to suit her personality.
Jackie was fully aware of their judgment while she was having fun with the situation, but she didn’t much care, saying:
"It was so funny, because, first of all, let me tell you what you’re doing, military man. You’re taking innocent men and turning them into killers. Do you think that’s a thing you think you should be doing? Don’t look at me like I’m doing something wrong. You’re the wrong one."
When Jackie did something, she was sure to do it on her own terms. She loved performing and had a beautiful voice, so she naturally joined the church choir. When she did so, she was incredibly clear that she would sing and then leave before the priest began talking as she was not interested in what he had to say.
Her love for performing would only grow as time went on, and she began to have some success in America. She lived with other soul singers and later shared stages with greats like Etta James, Jackie Wilson, and the Impressions.
““One cannot choose where one is born, but you can choose your home.””
This was not to last, as the United States of America was still in the Jim Crow era. After seeing a black man beaten in front of her by a group of white men, she decided she had to leave.
She came to Canada originally to perform, but she quickly fell in love with the country and settled down with a band in Toronto. While Canada had more than its fair share of racism, she found that it was more covert than the racism that she experienced during her time in America. It was a mixture of this, and her steadfast ability to stay true to who she was that led her to build a happy life in Canada.
She said of her move:
"One cannot choose where one is born, but you can choose your home. I chose Toronto. I love Toronto. I love Canadian people. I consider myself a part of them. The Canadian people have been so good to me. At first, there were people who are ignorant and talk and talk and don't know what they're talking about. They were curious, but when they got to know me and we grew to love to one another — I loved them first. I had to. I could not allow myself to be angry. We became real lovers. I love Toronto.”
She would find success both personally and professionally, releasing "Any Other Way," a song that would reach number 2 on the Canadian music charts. All the while she was still fully out, dressing how she pleased.
While she still wore dresses, she also ignored much of the pressure to lean into the ideals of femininity at the time. Transgender people are often expected to adhere more strictly to gender roles than their cisgender counterparts—otherwise they are accused of "not trying hard enough." Loyalty to gender roles is often considered a prerequisite to a transgender person having their gender identity respected.
Jackie had always dressed the way she wanted to, and when she performed that often meant wearing glittering suits with her hair up. She remembered people’s reactions to this saying:
“Most people thought I was a lesbian. One taxi driver said ‘I don’t know why, as pretty as she is, she wears suits.”
But other’s perceptions of her weren’t important to her, as she would later say:
"I have never felt that I had to change or do anything that wasn't natural to me. I will never, ever be some kind of wishy-washy creature that pretends or lets others guide me. I guide my life. It is mine. No matter what anyone says, I'm going to be Jackie. That's all I can be. That's all I know. It's what I feel from my heart and my soul."
““The boys would say you’re wrong. We’re with Jackie because we want to be.””
It was not always perfect for Jackie. She would remember at least one man from every band she worked with propositioning her, something she was strongly against. In one case after her rejection, a bandmate pulled out a knife. Jackie was then forced to deescalate the situation and was luckily able to escape.
Like many trans women of color today, she was regularly harassed by the police. She remembered her experiences with the Toronto police force saying:
"Those creatures on the force, they were gay but will never come out. They feel they’ve got to hide, so you should too. They would see me in a motor car with these fine boys and, of course, they’re drooling. They would stop us and try to get these boys to say that I was soliciting. The boys would say you’re wrong. We’re with Jackie because we want to be.”
On stage, while she was able to be remarkably open, her music would usually allude to the topic through references and wordplay. Even with this, she gained quite a large queer following and a large following in general.
She was seen as one of the stars of the Canadian music scene for most of her time there from 1961 up until 1970 when she suddenly disappeared. As an openly queer person, many people assumed her disappearance was due to violence, or running from the threat of violence, and with no way to contact her, rumours began to grow.
It was in 2010 that these rumours and the intriguing story of Jackie Shane’s life led to broadcaster Elaine Banks putting together a documentary about her. She reached out to Jackie’s friends and bandmates, interviewing them and through this cobbled together a fifty-four minute documentary about Jackie’s life that was released on CBC radio. It was called I Got Mine: The Story of Jackie Shane and it left off on an uncertain note, as they still had no idea where Jackie Shane ended up.
It was because of this documentary that Jackie Shane came back into public consciousness and eventually was rediscovered in Nashville where she had moved after the death of her mother.
The story of her disappearance was finally uncovered and instead of the tragedy that many had concocted within their minds, the truth was startlingly ordinary. Jackie Shane’s mother had gotten sick, so Jackie had moved to Los Angeles to take care of her, and after retired in Nashville.
She had purposefully kept herself securely under the radar, wearing sunglasses in public and rarely leaving her home, not talking to her neighbours and generally keeping to herself. It is not much of a surprise when she was rediscovered that she was initially annoyed. But as she watched people's reactions, she began to warm up to her new reality.
She was Jackie Shane though, and she made her own rules, one of which was that reporters were to only get interviews through the phone, and each was to get half an hour with her. The first she stuck to surprisingly strictly, while she bent the second to match her whims.
“I get my charge from performing in front of people. That’s my energy.”
Through this publicity, she was able to re-release her music which had up until that time mostly faded away to only be found on compilation records, as during the height of her career she turned away anyone who tried to get her signed. Including Motown records, as she was well aware of how they could manipulate artists, and was worried they would try and shove her back into the closet in an attempt to push her into the spotlight.
Her re-released album earned her a Grammy nomination for Best Historical Record, and she found a balance in them. As she initially shied away from recording at all because she felt much more connected to live performances saying:
“I get my charge from performing in front of people. That’s my energy.”
In this record they were able to recover live recordings instead of having to rely on too many studio ones, leading to the release of many of the ad-libbed moments in Jackie’s shows.
As she reemerged she found out how many people of a completely different generation were inspired by her work, and received the appreciation she deserved not only for her work but her experiences as a transgender woman of colour who had been officially out of the closet since the 1950s.
In interviews she shared her unique and powerful perspective on the world, giving advice that applies as well to today as it had in the 1960s such as:
"Leave other people alone in the way that they live their lives that you don’t understand. If you want to really know about those people, come to them in friendship! Sit down and let them tell you what their lives are like. But don’t just jump up and holler, “She’s wearing this,” and, “He’s wearing that.” Sit down with a transgender person and let them tell you what their life is like. Sit down with a gay person and let them tell you what life is like for them. Sit with a lesbian and let her tell you about the nature of her life, and what she goes through. How can you judge when you don’t know what it’s about?"
She was able to reiterate time and again that she was able to live the life she did, because of her absolute refusal to stop loving herself and others. One of the most powerful quotes from her being:
"When you're different people are not sure how to approach you, so what I've done is, I've loved them first. I had to."
One thing she did express regret for was leaving Canada, saying:
"I came back to America for one reason: my mother. I didn't want to. I should've let her come to me. She was afraid of changing, moving from the United States to Canada, and I should've let her come to me. But I went to her and that was a mistake I made because of my love and wanting to take care of her, to be with her as I always had. That's the mistake I made. I should have let her come to me."
But her return to America did not also make for an acceptance of that the country represented in her life, she refused to forget the harm that America caused to people like her, and thus gave little mind to the ideas still held by the government of the country saying:
"This country allowed the most outrageous evil practice in the world: enslaving people. So, therefore, I don’t jump in when they say this, that, and the other, because I know how wrong they can be."
When same-sex marriage was eventually legalized in 2015 she responded publicly saying:
“We should have been able to do it from the beginning. We’ve had to fight for everything that should have already been on the table.”
It is incredibly fortunate that Jackie Shane was found when she was, as in 2018 she died of natural causes. It is only because of the 2010 documentary that so many of her words have been recorded.
As a friend and A&R man from the record company she eventually signed to, Douglass Mcgowan said:
"Jackie’s story rewrites history for people. It tells young people that some people have been fighting for rights before there were even names for their causes.”
Of course, it has always been Jackie Shane who was able to understand herself best, and when asked what she wanted upon her return to the spotlight, she had a simple answer:
"I want people to know that I love them."
[Disclaimer: some of the sources may contain triggering material]
Banks, E. (Host). (2010, February 25). I Got Mine: The Story of Jackie Shane [Radio program]. Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1573021090
Drucker, Z. (2018, November 27). R&B Legend Jackie Shane On Growing Up Trans in the South. Vice. Retrieved from https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wj3ddn/randb-legend-jackie-shane-on-growing-up-trans-in-the-south
Farber, J. (2017, October 23). Trans pioneer Jackie Shane: 'I don’t bow down. I do not get down on my knees'. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/oct/23/trans-pioneer-jackie-shane-i-dont-bow-down-i-do-not-get-down-on-my-knees
Farber, J. (2019, February 25). Jackie Shane: remembering the groundbreaking trans soul singer. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://amp.theguardian.com/music/2019/feb/25/jackie-shane-groundbreaking-trans-soul-singer
Hall, K. M. (2019, February 22). Pioneering transgender singer Jackie Shane dead at 78. CityNews. Retrieved from https://toronto.citynews.ca/2019/02/22/pioneering-transgender-singer-jackie-shane-dead-at-78/amp/
Jackie Shane, pioneering transgender soul singer, dead at 78. (2019, February 22). CBC. Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5029817
Jackie Shane - Any Other Way. Numero Group. Retrieved from http://www.numerogroup.com/d/jackie-shane-any-other-way
Jennings, N. (2019, March 1). Transgender soul singer Jackie Shane thrilled crowds. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/music/article-transgender-soul-singer-jackie-shane-thrilled-crowds/
Ngabo, G. (2019, February 22). Pioneering Toronto transgender singer Jackie Shane inspired people to ‘live their authentic lives’. The Star. Retrieved from https://www.thestar.com/amp/entertainment/music/2019/02/22/pioneering-toronto-transgender-singer-jackie-shane-dead-at-78.html
Portwood, J. (2019, February 22). Jackie Shane, Soul Singer and Transgender Pioneer, Dead at 78. Rollingstone. Retrieved from https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/jackie-shane-soul-singer-transgender-obituary-798820/amp/
R.I.P. Toronto Soul Singer and Trans Icon Jackie Shane. (2019, February 22). Exclaim. Retrieved from http://exclaim.ca/amparticle/r_i_p_toronto_soul_singer_and_trans_icon_jackie_shane
Reynolds, S. & Hortie, L. (2014). Whatever Happened to Jackie Shane? CFMDC. Retrieved from https://www.cfmdc.org/film/4568
Stack, L. (2019, February 22). Jackie Shane, Transgender Pioneer of 1960s Soul Music, Dies at 78. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/22/obituaries/jackie-shane-dead.html
The late Jackie Shane in her own words: A rare interview with the pioneering musician. (2019, February 8). CBC. Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/radio/q/friday-feb-8-2019-david-foster-jackie-shane-and-more-1.5009904/jackie-shane-in-her-own-words-a-rare-interview-with-a-living-legend-1.5010217
Ugwu, R. (2017, October 15). Jackie Shane, a Transgender Soul Pioneer, Re-emerges After Four Decades. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/15/arts/music/jackie-shane-transgender-soul-pioneer.html
Yoo, N. (2019, February 22). Jackie Shane, Soul Singer and Transgender Pioneer, Dead at 78. Pitchfork. Retrieved from https://pitchfork.com/news/jackie-shane-soul-singer-and-transgender-pioneer-dead-at-78/amp/