9 celebrity parents raising gender non-binary and transgender kids
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These 9 celebrities have embraced their gender non-binary and transgender children.
"Bombshell" actor Charlize Theron, NBA player Dwyane Wade, and singer Cher all have children who identify as gender non-binary or transgender.
An increasing number of celebrities are publicly embracing and supporting their gender non-binary and transgender children.
People who are gender non-binary, or gender-nonconforming, don't fit into a strictly "male" or "female" category. When a person identifies as transgender, that means their gender and personal identity doesn't correspond to their birth sex. Some people who identify outside of gender binaries use inclusive pronouns like "they" and "them."
Here are 9 celebrity parents who have embraced their gender-nonconforming and transgender kids.
Charlize Theron
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"Bombshell" actress and parent Charlize Theron adopted her now-seven-year-old daughter, Jackson, in 2012. She first introduced Jackson to the world as male, but in April 2019, Theron told the Daily Mail that Jackson is a girl.
She emphasized the importance of the press using the correct pronouns in an interview with Pride Source later the same year.
"I think it became harder for us the older she got that people were still writing about her in the wrong pronouns," she said, "and also I was still talking about her in the press using the wrong pronoun. It really hurt her feelings. I don't want to be that mom, and that was really why I said what I said a while back."
Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle Union
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Retired NBA player Dwyane Wade credits his actor wife actor Gabrielle Union for helping him embrace his 12-year-0ld child's fluid gender identity.
"She led me," he said during a 2019 interview on Showtime's "All the Smoke with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson" podcast. "She gave me some different lenses to look through."
Zion, who uses she/her pronouns, was the target of online harassment after Union posted a photo on Instagram in which Zion was wearing a crop top and long fingernails.
"For me it's all about, nothing changes with my love. Nothing changes with my responsibilities. Only thing I got to do now is get smarter and educate myself more. And that's my job," Wade told the podcast.
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt
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Actors Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's oldest biological child, named Shiloh and assigned female at birth, told the former couple that they (the child's preferred pronoun) would rather be called John in 2014.
John has been wearing suits and other gender-nonconforming clothing for years, and Jolie discussed embracing her child's clothing choices with Vanity Fair in 2010.
Cynthia Nixon
In 2018, "Sex and the City" actress and former New York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon shared an empowering message to her transgender son Samuel on Instagram.
Nixon, who is currently married to Christine Marinoni, had Samuel with her former husband, Danny Mozes.
In a 2018 interview with US Weekly, Nixon opened up about the public's reaction to the first photo she shared of her son.
"There was some general, you know, voicings of support," she said. "But generally it was not a big deal. I was kind of shocked at what a non-event it was, which is just how far we've come in such a short amount of time."
Warren Beatty and Annette Bening
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In a 2016 interview with Variety, Oscar-winning actor Warren Beatty opened up about his transgender son, Stephen Ira.
"He's a revolutionary, a genius, and my hero, as are all my children," Beatty told the magazine.
Stephen's mother actress Annette Bening also voiced her admiration for her son in a 2019 interview with AARP.
Speaking of Stephen's transition, Bening said, "He's managed something that's very challenging with great style and great intelligence."
Cher
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Chaz Bono, the only child of musicians Cher and the late Sonny Bono, shared his transition publicly in the 2011 documentary "Becoming Chaz."
Chaz, born Chastity and assigned male at birth, legally changed his name and gender in 2010 at the age of 40, making him the oldest celebrity child on this list.
His mother, Cher talked about Chaz's transition in a 2013 interview with the Mirror, saying that his transition ended up bringing the pair closer.
"Now it doesn't make any difference as I don't feel a loss at all," Cher told the publication. "The loss I thought I was going to feel, I don't feel one iota."
Read more:
5 ways to support transgender men and non-binary people during pregnancy
8 viral transgender coming out stories that will warm your heart
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