Charlize Theron Says Her Child’s Gender “Is Not for Me to Decide”

Charlize Theron is receiving applause for her open and accepting approach to motherhood.

The actress is the mother of two children—August and Jackson, ages 3 and 7—whom she adopted. When she was spotted taking a break from her press tour for her upcoming comedy, Long Shot, to drop Jackson off at a music lesson in Los Angeles, paparazzi captured pictures of the child wearing a skirt and leggings, which apparently caused some confusion among reporters who had assumed Jackson was a boy.

When prompted by the Daily Mail about the gender of her oldest child, whom she adopted years ago, Theron stated that Jackson identifies as a girl. “I thought she was a boy, too, until she looked at me when she was 3 years old and said: I am not a boy!” Theron said.

The news of Jackson identifying as a girl is not exactly new, however. In December 2018, while filming Variety’s “Actors on Actors” series, Theron told Michael B. Jordan that she was the mother of “two beautiful African-American daughters.”

She echoed the sentiment months later, to the Daily Mail. “I have two beautiful daughters who, just like any parent, I want to protect and I want to see thrive,” Theron said, before adding that she would not be the one to decide how her children identify or how they wish to present themselves to the world. “They were born who they are and exactly where in the world both of them get to find themselves as they grow up, and who they want to be, is not for me to decide,” she continued.

Fans of the actress, as well as Mermaids, an organization dedicated to family support for gender diverse and transgender children, are applauding Theron for opening up about raising Jackson as the girl she says she is, tweeting their appreciation of her affirmation of her child. “Wonderfully affirming words from @CharlizeAfrica raising her two daughters, the eldest of which just happens to be trans,” Mermaids tweeted.

“My job as a parent is to celebrate them and to love them and to make sure that they have everything they need in order to be what they want to be,” Theron told the Daily Mail, before adding, “And I will do everything in my power for my kids to have that right and to be protected within that.”

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