Appearing on The View, Gabrielle Union gave advice to parents of trans kids. (The View/ YouTube)
Gabrielle Union has said that parents who “throw away” their trans kids are “bizarre, sad and pathetic”.
The Bring It On actress has four kids with former NBA star Dwyane Wade, including Wade’s 12-year-old daughter Zaya, who came out as transgender in February.
Union, 47, appeared on a socially distanced episode of The View and gave advice to other parents of trans kids.
She said: “To love your child, listen to your child, accept your child. Reject the notion that your children are disposable if they are not little mini versions of you.
“Allowing them to be exactly who they are and loving them and supporting them and hopefully guiding them to be a loving, compassionate and open-minded global citizen should be the goal.”
On parents who reject their trans kids, she said: “We’ve just seen so many times people throw away their kids and it’s … I don’t even have a word to describe it.
“It’s bizarre, sad, pathetic, heartbreaking. We just want to remind people that loving your kid is actually an option.
“Loving them, accepting them, helping to guide them in a way that reminds them that they are heard and seen and loved exactly as they are.”
Union also appeared on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday, May 6, and discussed how she and her husband are focused on supporting the LGBT+ community during the coronavirus crisis.
She said: “We’ve been giving, like so many people have been giving. We’re trying to figure out what maybe are some communities that are falling through the cracks during all this giving?
“We tend to focus most of our efforts these days on the most marginalised of us. That oftentimes is marginalised communities within the LGBTQ+ community.
“So, we directed a lot of our giving toward those communities that tend to be forgotten about, especially during a global pandemic.”
Becoming tearful, she added: “We’re just trying to give in any way we can to remind people that we see you, we hear you, we love you, and we’re going to try to make life a little bit better in any way that we can.”