Annette Bening calls on Republicans to stop stoking anti-trans hatred

Annette Bening has called on Republicans to stop stoking anti-trans hatred. The four-time Academy Award nominee was asked about her support for her transgender son, writer Stephen Ira, and her increasingly vocal advocacy for trans rights during a January 12 appearance on The View.

Bening explained, as she has previously, that for a long time she was protective of both her own and Ira’s privacy.

“I felt it was his right to say what he wanted to say publicly, or not,” she said. “And now, as time has gone on – especially now with what’s happening, unfortunately, in the political process, that trans people are being used – fear and ignorance is being stoked against trans people in the most frightening way. It’s so unfair and I feel very, very strongly about it.”

Related: Annette Bening warns anti-trans lawmakers: “You do not want to make this momma mad”

The four-time Oscar nominee delivered a stirring speech at GLSEN’s Rise Up L.A. benefit.

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“I am a Democrat,” Bening continued. “We need a strong Republican party. We need a strong opposition. But we don’t need people to stoke up fear.”

The Nyad star once again mentioned a friend who had to move her family, including her trans daughter, from Texas to Los Angeles after Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) directed the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate parents who support their transgender children for child abuse if parents allowed their kids to access to gender-affirming medical care. (In March 2022, a Texas judge issued a temporary injunction, blocking the directive. But this past June, Abbott signed a bill into law banning gender-affirming care for minors.)

“My friend was terribly frightened,” Bening said. “We need the Republicans to stand up and say that this is wrong. And that this is — it’s heartbreaking for our country.”

Bening was also asked how she would respond to people who “don’t understand or quite get the trans issues.”

“I would hope that people would find someone in their lives who’s a trans person,” she said. “Because then you really do understand that we don’t have to judge. We have to love and understand. That’s how I feel.”

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