Annette Bening, on the GOP and the conservatives’ efforts to stoke anti-transgender bigotry for political gain:
“They are trying to stir up all this fear in people about trans kids and parents, and they are trying to legislate that. This should not be scary to anybody else. This is a private, legitimate, complex, deep, spiritual, physical, psychological experience that has to be respected and honored. At the bottom line, life is about love. For me, the real transition has happened as the right wing in the country has become more and more mobilized on misinforming people about the LGBTQ community. They have been vilifying our community and creating problems that do not exist and creating and sowing hate and fear as a way of rallying their base. That’s obviously not new, and it’s happened in the campaigns of the past, especially against gay people. But now it’s transphobia, and it’s just rampant. They’re doing it at a time when there are more and more trans people who are living openly and who are our teachers, our writers, and our doctors … what I would wish is for every person to have someone who is trans in their family because once somebody you love is trans, then you get it. I am incredibly proud of [my son], and he has carved his own way. He’s someone I do admire, and I’ve learned a lot from when he first came out. I was very ignorant about what that meant to be a trans kid. I, like every other parent, want to protect my kids and make sure they’re OK, and I had a lot of learning to do. I didn’t always know what to do, and I didn’t always make the right choices because of my own ignorance, but we got through it [and] we all have a responsibility to protect and defend the rights of trans folks in our world. They’re precious parts of our community.” The attacks on trans people are personal for Bening, whose son, writer Stephen Ira, is trans. The four-time Academy Award nominee and recently appointed chair of the board of the Entertainment Community Fund admitted to a certain hesitation in talking about her son publicly.
She also vowed to continue to use here platform to advocate for trans people.
Knowledge is power; love is love; the conservative right is wrong.
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