Warren Beatty And Annette Bening's Son, Stephen, Speaks About His Transsexual Journey

by UInterviewJuly 20, 2012, 12:00 amNews >

Warren Beatty and Annette Bening’s 20-year-old son, Stephen Ira Beatty, formerly Kathlyn Elizabeth Beatty, gave a candid interview about his transsexual journey in a nearly seven-minute video Q&A posted on WeHappyTrans.com. “My name is Stephen. I identify as a trans man, a faggy queen, a homosexual, a queer, a nerd fighter, a writer, an artist and a guy who needs a haircut,” Stephen began.

Stephen revealed that he likes to dress in a feminine way, wearing jewelry and ribbons, although he did not present his 'fem' side in the video. “It's rare that my gender is misread [now that I've transitioned] based on my fem presentation, which I really appreciate,” Stephen explained. “And that's totally a privilege, being on hormones and being perceived, being read that way — as male, even though I'm presenting in a fem way. It’s nice to finally have my identity be legible to people,” Stephen concluded. He named Truman Capote and any male-identified person who "wears thigh-highs or garters" as style icons.

But the answer that most have been fixating on hints at Stephen’s parents’ struggle with his sex change. “My friends, my peers who I'm lucky to have relationships with a lot of, ever since high school, when I came out and transitioned socially when I was 14 or so,” Stephen replied when asked who was most supportive of his transition, noticeably excluding his celebrity parents. Whether he was suggesting that they were not supportive or was simply trying to avoid name-dropping remained unclear as he went on to discuss what changes he would most like to see in the world.

“I would like people to be more intentional with their actions and with their language and realize that words mean things,” Stephen said. “I would like people to imagine more complexly, I would like people to understand that other people are people… even if they have enormous appreciable differences.”

Stephen is a sophomore at Sarah Lawrence College in New York.

Watch the interview here: