Actress Annette Bening spoke out against anti-trans rhetoric during a guest appearance on The View recently. Bening has a 32-year-old trans son who she shares with husband Warren Beatty. She spoke of her relationship with him to the show’s hosts. “At the beginning, I felt very protective of his privacy, because he’s the son of these two famous people,” she said. “I felt it was his right to say what we wanted to say publicly, or not.”
Bening spoke about her shift from remaining quiet on political topics in the public sphere to speaking openly about her support for the LGBTQ+ community. “I have felt the responsibility to speak out and to speak up as transphobia has invaded our government at the local, state, and federal levels. It is hurtful. It is shameful. And it is being used as a tool by the far-right to rally their base and turn out the vote,” she said.
Bening has acted in various LGBTQ+ films, such as the 2023 biopic Nyad, and The Kids Are All Right. In the past year, she has warned anti-trans politicians that they “do not want to make this momma mad.”
“As time has gone on, especially now with what’s happening, unfortunately, in the political process, [with how] trans people are being used, fear and ignorance is being stoked against trans people in the most frightening way.”
