Annette Bening says she is ‘proud’ of her transgender son

ABOVE: Stephen Ira, image via Twitter.

Hollywood icon Annette Bening has spoken up about her feelings toward her transgender son.

Bening, who is known for keeping quiet about her personal life, opened up in an interview for AARP, when she brought up a book recently given to her by her son, Stephen Ira. In the novel, “Little Fish” by Casey Plett, a young transgender woman finds out, to her surprise, that her Mennonite grandfather might also have been trans.

The four-time Academy Award nominee then went on to add:

“He’s managed something that’s very challenging with great style and great intelligence. He’s an articulate, thoughtful person, and I’m very, very proud of him.”

Ira, 27, is the firstborn child of Bening, who can currently be seen starring as Senator Dianne Feinstein in “The Report,” and fellow A-lister husband Warren Beatty. Assigned female at birth, he came out as trans and began transitioning at 14.

Beatty has previously expressed his own support for his son, telling Vanity Fair in 2016, “He’s a revolutionary, a genius, and my hero, as are all my children.”

Ira, a poet and writer, first spoke out publicly about his transition in a 2012 video on the WeHappyTrans website. He made news after the 2014 suicide of transgender teen Leelah Alcorn, when he published a series of tweets in response to the revelation she had been taken to Christian therapists who tried to persuade her being trans was wrong.

“Give this young woman the peace in death that she deserves and work for what she wanted, work for the things she needed while she lived,” he began. “IF YOU CAN’T HANDLE HAVING A TRANS KID, DON’T HAVE KIDS.”

He went on to add, “if your therapist tries hard to convince you not to transition, that’s conversion therapy!,” before revealing, “I survived conversion therapy and transphobic abuse.”

He concluded his series of Tweets by offering encouragement and support for others in the trans community, saying, “I am attractive to people who are not trans,” and that he has “a beautiful boyfriend.”

“You will and can be loved and adored,” he concluded.

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