Lifetime is at work on an original movie based on the true story of a transgender Latina. Just a Girl will star Mercedes Ruehl as a single mother whose teenage son decides to live as a girl and is then murdered. Gloria Allred, the well known civil-rights attorney, will co-executive produce.
The movie is based on the true story of Sylvia Guerrero and her son, Eddie, who begins dressing as a girl named “Gwen,” (he chooses the name because he idolizes the singer Gwen Stefani). After a group of boys murdered Gwen at a party, Guerrero crusaded for equal rights for transgender people. Allred represented Guerrero at the murder trial.
Lifetime will develop a public-service announcement with Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) to run with the movie.
