this is "nightline." tonight surviving r. kelly. new fallout from the docuseries drama. >> why didn't anyone know this. >> more alleged victims reaching out to law enforcement. authority t authorities now getting involved in two states. plus, i am jazz. we've been following her since she was 6 years old. now the pioneering transgender teen's new journey, taking us through her gender confirmation surgery. the intimate milestone moments with friends and family. and behold the fold. meet the revolutionary robot

that could save you movre than wrinkle in time. but first, the "nightline" five. "nightline" five.

good evening. thanks for joining us. we begin tonight with the furor around a new documentary series

involving r. kelly. women in the lifetime series shared haunting revelations. here's linsey davis. >> it just kept going, going, going. i want my story to be heard so people can take the situation seriously. >> why didn't anyone know this? no one cared because we were black girls. >> no matter how demeaning it felt. >> reporter: harrowing stories, alleged by dozens of women, accusing the r&b legend of all forms of abuse. told in the docuseries "surviving r. kelly." >> it's been two years now, and we still haven't seen our daughter. >> reporter: the series has been watched by over 18 million people. law enforcement is now involved in two states, just today

protests raged outside his studio. kelly still denies accusations. the man behind anthems like "ignition" and "i believe i can fly." have been plagued with allegations of sex with underage girls well back into the '90s. >> now they're going back and saying, maybe that was true. >> reporter: tamara simmons is one of the producers of the series. >> when you see these patterns that date back to the '90s, what they went through is real. >> reporter: they say in light of the me too movement, it's time to investigate some of those claims. >> some are 2017. there were a few articles that surfaced that detailed new alleged victims. parallel to that, the me too movement start ted to take off. once we started to get in touch

with some of these women and dig a little deeper into their stories, it bloomed into other people. >> you have a powerful person loved in the african-american community and then you have a victim nobody iows you how rich powerful men can get away with a lot of things. >> reporter: stars like jada pinkett smith are asking how he can still sell albums despite the controversy. >> i really don't want to believe it's because black girls don't care. >> reporter: more than 50 people were interviewed for the docuseries, including more than a dozen alleged victims who claim they were physically and sexually abused stretching over months and years. many say they were just teenagers when they first met the star. >> he was being really nice. and he asked me how old i was. i told him i was 17. >> young girls are impressionable.

like, he's r. kelly. >> reporter: kelly's attorney says these allegations are nothing. that if he did anything wrong you would hear facts, not the pitchfork posse. >> i'm here today to encourage victims of sexual assault or domestic violence related to these allegations to please get in touch with our office. >> reporter: after the docuseries aired, cook county, illinois state attorney tim fox issued a call for anyone with information to come forward. >> we don't have the ability to deal in rumor we have to deal with facts and circumstances. there those who feel they've been a victim of a crime. >> we are going to be seeing e public and saying,attos a sig change from what we've seen

before. >> reporter: on tuesday, faith rogers, who also appeared in the series, appealed to a judge in new york to expedite her case. rogers is suing kelly for sexual battery and willfully and deliberately infecting her with her piece a herpes. kelly never filed a response with the court. >> it was consensual, but it was consented by intimidation. i look back, and there's an ipad, and i just turned my head away. i didn't want my face to be on it. >> reporter: accusations of sexual misconduct have dogged kelly for 20 years. in 2008, he was acquitted of charges of child pornography around that infamous video that shows him allegedly urinating into the mouth of a minor. >> it's sort of the drug of celebrity, you know? and i think one of the things

that made these cases difficult to prosecute is because r. kelly was this beloved icon in the black community. >> reporter: in a music interview with toure, he failed to answer what to many was a basic question. >> do you like teenage girls? >> when you say teenage, how old are we talking? >> girls who are teenagers. >> 19? >> 19 and younger. >> i have some 19-year-old friends. >> reporter: long before that tape emerged, r. kelly made his desire for young women well-known. it was discovered the singer was 15 at the time of their marriage. but it happened to his daughter. >> i just felt like it was not going to happen to me.

>> reporter: he says kelly mentored his daughter and eventually trapped her. his daughter says she's with him voluntarily. >> the last time i saw my daughter was 2016 at her graduation. >> reporter: a story that sounds eerily similar to what timothy savage says happened to his daughter joslin. >> we got a call from her. and she told us she was with r. kelly. we was like, what are you doing? you're in college. >> my daughter is being held against her will. >> reporter: he appealed to the public last year in a bid for help, alleging that his daughter is being held against her will and is being sexually abused by kelly. just this month he filed a police report detailing a call with one of kelly's managers. as a police officer listened on. the manager threatened to ruin the family if they participated in the lifetime series. a separate man threatened his

life and told him his daughter was being held by kelly. his daughter denied she was involved any kind of sex kwulcu. >> none of that is true. >> reporter: the district attorney has confirmed since the docuseries aired they've been in touch were tith the savage famid has tried to contact joslin to no avail. >> there are statutes of limitations, is that going to be a problem for sex crimes? yes. but perhaps not for all. she said this happened in may 2017. that wasn't too long ago. >> do i believe that he should serve time in jail? i do. >> reporter: you would like to see him arrested? >> yes. >> reporter: kelly's ex-wife andrea kelly believes justice is long overdue. she says she was a victim

herself for 13 long years of emotional and sexual abuse all at the hands of robert kelly. she and the singer have three children together. did you ever fear for your life? >> yes. >> reporter: you thought he would kill you. >> yes. >> at the end of the day, we don't have to keep talking about the storm. >> reporter: she feels that she and her story are being used for something greater. what have you learned about yourself through all of this? >> i know now that i'm being used for something greater than me. >> nobody just cares about the black women that speak out. especially the black community. it's the black community that bashes the black women who speak out about abuse. >> we've been watch beiing them since they came forward in 2017 try various attempts to get media attention, but it doesn't take hold. it goes back to this idea that black girls don't matter. >> reporter: for many of these women, their solace comes in

speaking out and knowing that now people are listening. >> you know, you're not alone. you're not alone. >> our thanks to linsey. up next, the most transparent transgender teen takes us inside her world. takes us inside her world. ♪ ♪ ♪

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road for jazz jensing, the

pioneering trangender teen. she opens up about a life-changing procedure that's been lifelong dream. >> i didn't necessarily choose this path. this path chose me. >> reporter: jazz jennings is the most famous transgender teen. she shares the most personal details of her life. >> from the time i've been 6 years old i've been sharing my story. at first i thought okay, this will all come to an end and i'll be able to live my life. but more and more i realize i was given this platform for a reason. i always like people to look past your physical anatomy to see who you are. >> reporter: now in the fifth season of her award-winning tlc show "i am jazz", she's more candid than ever, sharing intimate milestone moments of adolescence. >> have you kissed him yet?

>> yes, i've kissed him a lot. >> reporter: on the verge of adult hood, she also opens up about the twists and turns leading to the final gender confirmation surgery. >> i do have to weigh you. if you are one pound short we're going to have to push surgery back. >> let's just do the damn thing. let's do it. >> reporter: a life changing procedure that for years was just a dream. >> i asked my mom, when is the good fairy going to come with her mag wand and turn my penis into a vagina. >> reporter: you were 2. >> yeah. >> reporter: when we met up with jazz last year she was days away from undergoing her final transition surgery. >> i would say this is the final step of transitioning. >> reporter: a procedure that in her case essentially refashions male genitalia into the female equivalent. >> this is really the last thing that will validate my ide

as a woman. i can live my life as just jazz. >> reporter: it's been a long and winding road, one we've documented for more than a decade. hi. can i come in your house? >> yeah. >> reporter: the jennings first opened up to barbara walters back in 2007. >> your child was born a boy, and now you call him a girl. yes? >> yes. >> reporter: at the time, jazz was just 6 years old, one of the youngest documented cases of a child transitioning from male to female. >> if people say to you, are you a boy or a girl, what do you say? >> a girl. >> mm-hm. >> reporter: you've had to put up with a lot of withering criticism, what, after all these years, do you say to people who still have those doubts? >> i'd rather have a living daughter than a dead son. and i know that if i didn't let this child be who she wanted to be, there's a good chance she wouldn't be with us today. >> reporter: over the years,

we've checked in with jazz, that precocious little girl who grew into a teen, navigating the awkward middle school years. >> i don't thinks about me. >> reporter: but with adolescence looming, jazz along with her parents, decided to use blockers bck male puberty. then the female hormone. >> this is the pill i take. i start getting breasts, softer features. everything more feminine. it's what i've always wanted. >> reporter: she calls it a life-saving pill. but years later, reaching the operating room would come with obstacles. that surgery impeded by the hormones. >> i didn't have enough growth down below. it was very challenging to find a doctor, a surgeon who was willing to perform the operation

on me, just because i'm such a difficult case. >> what wre reall doing right now is break through in terms of the surgery in this peritoneal lining. jazz as a medical case is a conundrum. her puberty was blocked so well that she didn't get genitals in a way to allow us to use the approach. >> they're using the tissue i have, the peritoneal, i call did a break through. as long as it's functional. >> reporter: as jazz made her way into that life-saving surgery, she hopes if successful it would pave the way for the next generation of trans girls seeking to have the same surgery. with a team of three sur jogeon, the surgery lasting almost five hours. >> we have news. we have news. it's a girl. >> it's a girl!

>> reporter: her parents right there throughout. >> it's a girl. i love you so much. >> reporter: we followed up with jazz after her surgery. the recovery was not easy. ? the >> there was a complication, i had to go in for another procedure. it was all part of the journey. the good thing was it was only cosmetic and external, so it wasn't too dramatic. >> reporter: your life was never in danger. >> no, my life wasn't in danger. >> reporter: in many ways, she's still that girl we met a decade ago. but now at 18, the trans child advocate is transitioning to adult, tackling the hard realities in her community, discrimination in the work place, unemployment, homelesses, even higher rates of murder. >> reporter: do you see yourself continuing to carry the banner for trans rights? >> more and more i'm thinking about continuing my advocatesy.

if we can embrace the variety of who we are and all of our differences and come together with new ideas and ways of thinking, then i think this world can be a beautiful place. >> our thanks to jazz and the entire jennings family. "i am jazz" airs tuesday night on tlc. up next, meet the gadget that could fold your entire load of laundry in no time flat. time flat. abc news "nightline" sponsored by geico. red by geico. i realize i love you, but as long as you're with jessica, there can never be anything between us. listen cassie, there's no need to cry. besides, i've got really great news. you're leaving jessica? no. i just saved a load of money on car insurance by switching to geico. i saved. i thought that meant something to you.

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