Fin Affleck announced their new name while speaking at their grandfather’s funeral. (Facebook/ Christ Church United Methodist)
Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner’s teenage child has publicly debuted their new name, Fin, at their grandfather’s funeral – and while reports have described this as Fin “coming out as trans”, all they did was say their name.
The 15-year-old, who spoke at their grandfather’s memorial service last weekend at Christ Church United Methodist in Charleston, West Virginia, introduced themselves from the lectern at the service as “Fin Affleck”.
“Hello my name is Fin Affleck,” they said, before going on to read a Bible verse: “Better is a little with righteousness, than a large income with injustice.”
Fin, who sported a short haircut, looked sharp in a black suit. Although many outlets have reported that Fin Affleck “came out as trans” during the memorial service, Fin simply shared their name and then immediately moved on with the emotional task at hand.
It’s worth noting that Fin Affleck’s name has been known to eagle-eyed Ben Affleck fans since January 2023, when Fin was photographed hugging stepmom Jennifer Lopez after she dropped them at school in Brentwood, LA, with their name spotted embroidered on their backpack.
Many outlets also ran the story as “Fin Affleck comes out as trans at a funeral”, with online critics claiming that Fin “did this on purpose” to “make the funeral all about them”, when that was not the case.
Gender-critical influencer Oli London shared a clip of Fin’s Bible reading, tweeting: “Ben Affleck’s daughter announces they are TRANS and have Transitioned to a boy whilst speaking at her grandfathers funeral.”
One supporter of Fin’s quote tweeted a Daily Mail story saying: “this is really nastily worded and leads people who haven’t read the article to believe that they made the funeral all about them and went all out about the trans thing – all they did was introduce themself before reading a bible verse.
“They just said hello my name is Fin Affleck.”
William Jack Garner’s funeral was live streamed on Facebook. He died at the age of 85 and following his death, on 1 April, Garner posted a tribute to him on Instagram.
She wrote: “My dad passed peacefully Saturday afternoon. We were with him, singing Amazing Grace as he left us (did we carry him across or scare him away— valid question.) While there is no tragedy in the death of an 85 year old man who lived a healthy, wonderful life, I know grief is unavoidable, waiting around unexpected corners.”
Garner’s post added that she and her sisters “will never be done talking about how wonderful he was”.
Alongside Fin, Garner and Affleck – who divorced in 2018 – are also parents to two other children, Violet Anne (18) and Samuel. Samuel is Fin’s twin.
Affleck married Jennifer Lopez in 2022 and he is stepdad to her child Emme, who is non-binary.
Lopez has previously shown her support for her trans non-binary nibling (a gender-neutral term for a child of a sibling, replacing “niece” or “nephew”) Brendon Scholl – and helped promote their short film Draw With Me, about gender, art and self-expression.