Andrea Kelly Publicly States Her Support For 14 Years Old Transgender Son

Andrea Kelly’s youngest child with ex, R. Kelly, recently came out of the closet with his transition from female to male.

The 14 year old's decision to go public with the story sparked so many debates online, especially after father R. Kelly said he didn't want an interviewer addressing his daughter as a son [read here].

Jay's mother, Andrea Kelly has been supportive all along according to Jay, and now she is speaking out and reiterating that support, even though she admits it's still a learning process for her on how to treat her child as a son now, and not a daughter.

Andrea also says in the new interview with VH1 that parents are wrong for not supporting their transitioning children. Check out some excerpts from the interview below;

This past June your 14-year-old son Jay came out as a transgender boy on his Ask.fm page. How is your family adjusting to that? Are there any misconceptions you’d like to clear up?

All I can say about Jay is he makes it so easy to be a proud mom. For parents, we need to realize, [our kids] have their own journey. Parents get it wrong when they don’t support their children. They have to go out and fight every day and face this world. The first battle should not be at home. I think that a lot of children in the LGBT community don’t succeed because the one thing they need the most is foundation. I just tell Jay all the time, baby you won the war. You’re gonna have a lot of battles but you won the war. Mama accepts and loves you for who you are. Your family does.

It’s pretty remarkable for a 14-year-old to be so open publicly. I mean that takes some courage.

It’s like Jay; you don’t understand that you’re changing people’s lives just by being courageous. The kid is so courageous. She has…and see, there I go [using the wrong pronoun]. It’s a learning experience. It really is. It’s something we smile about. When I make that mistake I’m like, “Girl, you got a son, honey, get it together. Get it right.” [Laughs]

Being R. Kelly and your child, there has been a lot of attention surrounding Jay coming out as trans. Was that surprising to your family?

You know it took a minute for that to click in my head. Then I have to stop and come back and say, in the urban community this is like a first. [For my family] this isn’t this shocking thing. I need [people], especially in the black community, to stop burying their heads in the sand. Let’s quit playing that game that you just chose to be gay or trans. What we choose every day is what we wear. We need to stop worrying about people’s gender and sexuality and think about the choices we’re making with our youth, period. That’s what we need to focus on in my community