You can’t beat a mama’s love. When word hit the interwebs that R. Kelly had a teenage transgender son, Jay, the news was reported scandalously in some parts of the black blogesphere. But both of Jay’s parents have been hugely supportive, as this VH1 interview with Jay’s mom, Drea, proves:
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. My dad is a retired military naval officer and all he said was, "I’m gonna mess up sometimes and [use the feminine pronoun] ‘she’ but I’m gonna eventually get the ‘he’ thing. Just give grandpa some time. I’m gonna get it dude." That was it.