Chantelle Billson
Celebrating trans and non-binary lives is important year-round and celebrities such as Cher and Naomi Watts set the bar high for others to follow through their vocal support of their transgender children.
Unconditional love is crucial for everyone, but especially for children who are coming to terms with the sexuality and/or gender identity.
A 2023 report found LGBTQ+ people are much less likely to be happy in adulthood when they were not supported at home and school when they were younger.
Here are just some of the celebrities who proudly love and support their transgender children.
Dwanye Wade
Basketball legend Dwayne Wade has been a vocal supporter of his daughter Zaya, who came out as transgender publicly in 2020.
The former Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls shooting guard and his wife Gabrielle Union-Wade have previously taken a stand against bigots by fiercely championing Zaya’s identity in speeches, social media posts and interviews.
Naomi Watts
In April 2024, British actress Naomi Watts was spotted bursting with pride as she looked at her 15-year-old trans daughter Kai Schreiber at the Dior pre-fall fashion show in Brooklyn, New York.
Watts and Kai’s father Spotlight and Ray Donovan star Liev Schreiber have been fully supportive of their trans daughter.
In 2022, the pair took to Instagram on Kai’s 14th birthday, to praise her, calling her “beautiful”, while Watts added that she was “beyond proud” to be her mum.
Cher
Pop icon Cher has been open about her support for trans son Chaz Bono. In 2020, she opened up about how their relationship improved after she put in the work to understand his experience.
“It took me a minute, because you’ve been with a child for 40 years, and then all of a sudden… but you know what? Chaz was so happy,” she said.
Jamie Lee Curtis
Halloween star Jamie Lee Curtis is another star vocally supportive of a trans daughter: Ruby Guest, who came out in 2020.
The following year, the pair gave an interview about their shared journey in which Curtis said: “Freedom is the goal for all LGBTQIA+ human beings.”
Curtis, also seen in Oscar-winning Everything Everywhere All At Once, has repeatedly used her platform to advocate for the trans community.
Cynthia Nixon
Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon has been open about her son Samuel coming out as trans while he was a university student.
In 2020, the lesbian actress said she found the pronoun transition difficult, but over time it has all become “more natural”.
Marlon Wayans
White Chicks actor Marlon Wayans has fully embraced his transgender son Kai.
In an interview with The Breakfast Club, the award-winning comedian said: “Not his… their transition… but my transition as a parent – going from ignorance and denial to complete unconditional love and acceptance.”
Charlize Theron
Charlize Theron’s trans daughter Jackson, who she adopted in 2012, came out at a young age.
In an interview with the Daily Mail in 2019, the Oscar-winning star of Monster and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness said: “She looked at me when she was three years old and said: ‘I am not a boy’.”
Speaking to chat show host Jimmy Fallon the same year, Theron said: “My job as a parent is to celebrate [my children] and to love them and to make sure that they have everything they need in order to be what they want to be. And I will do everything in my power for my kids to have that right.
“I grew up in a country [South Africa] where people lived with half-truths and lies and whispers and nobody said anything outright, and I was raised very specifically not to be like that.”
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