Academy Award winner Charlize Theron has shared in an interview with The Daily Mail that her eldest child, Jackson, is transgender.
Theron adopted Jackson as a baby back in 2012. At the time, she believed the child was a boy.
“Yes, I thought she was a boy, too,” Theron tells the Daily Mail. “Until she looked at me when she was three years old and said: ‘I am not a boy!’”
“So there you go,” continued the South African actress. “I have two beautiful daughters who, just like any parent, I want to protect and I want to see thrive.”
It seems Jackson is very lucky to have a parent who can understand, adjust and move on with love.
“They were born who they are and exactly where in the world both of them get to find themselves as they grow up, and who they want to be, is not for me to decide,” she added. “My job as a parent is to celebrate them 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 and to be protected within that,” said the 43-year-old actress.
Being open and embracing of the LGBTQ community is nothing new for Theron.
Back in 2009, she announced on The View that she wouldn’t marry her then-boyfriend, Stuart Townsend, until marriage equality was the law of the land in the U.S.
And during an appearance on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live, host Andy Cohen asked her about playing a bisexual character in the film Atomic Blonde.
The response was perfect.
“It’s just so strange when we talk so much about it. It should be normalized by now,” she told Cohen. “It’s something I feel is not represented enough in cinema … I feel that when you make movies, if you’re going to hold that mirror up and reflect society, then you should reflect society.”
And then there’s this Instagram post from two years ago the award-winning actress shared without explanation:
Folks in social media are applauding Theron’s announcement.
Transgender actress Jamie Clayton, of Netflix’s Sense8, tweeted, “@CharlizeAfrica Sending you so much love … Thank you beyond.”
https://twitter.com/MsJamieClayton/status/1119189355766005761
And gender specialist Dr. Helen Webberley, of the online transgender medical clinic Gender GP, quoted Theron’s statement adding, “What a lucky little girl.”
What a lucky little girl. ‘My job as a parent is to celebrate them and to love them and to make sure that they have everything they need in order to be what they want to be.’ https://t.co/O7VLygQXlt
— Dr Helen Webberley she/her 🏳️⚧️🧜♀️🏳️⚧️ (@HelenWebberley) April 19, 2019
Theron understands what parental love and acceptance means to children. She grew up with an abusive father who would reportedly beat her mother.
The domestic abuse continued until one day her mother had enough. One day, when Theron was 15-years-old, her father came home in a rage, carrying a gun and threatening to kill both mother and daughter.
Instead, Theron’s mother, Gerda, shot the father dead. The shooting was later ruled an act of self-defense.
So, Theron learned from a strong woman about standing up for her children and the truth.
“You can blame my mom for the fact I don’t know any better,” she shared with the Mail. “You know, I grew up in a country 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.”
“I was taught by my mom that you have to speak up,” she added. “You have to be able to know that, when this life is over, you’ll have lived the truth you’re comfortable with, and that nothing negative can come from that.”
What a lucky little girl, indeed.
It’s not her place to out her child. From her statement it seems to me she’s patting herself on the back for being a supportive mom. Let the child be a child and don’t turn the spotlight on them.