Jamie Lee Curtis Introduces Trans Daughter, “Learning New Terminology” Has Been A Challenge At Times
Actress Jamie Lee Curtis is introducing her transgender daughter Ruby, while opening up about some of the new things she had had to learn.
The “Halloween Kills” star, 62, spoke to People about her youngest daughter’s journey and how “learning new terminology and words” has been a challenge at times.
“It’s speaking a new language,” she told People. “I am new at it. I am not someone who is pretending to know much about it. And I’m going to blow it, I’m going to make mistakes. I would like to try to avoid making big mistakes.”
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, “You slow your speech down a little. You become a little more mindful about what you’re saying, how you’re saying it. You still mess up; I’ve messed up today twice. We’re human. But if one person reads this, sees a picture of Ruby and me and says, ‘I feel free to say this is who I am,’ then it’s worth it.”
Ruby also opened up during the interview about how she found it difficult to tel her parents at first.
“It was scary — just the sheer fact of telling them something about me they didn’t know,” Ruby said.. “It was intimidating — but I wasn’t worried. They had been so accepting of me my entire life.”
“A friend of mine who is trans asked me what my gender was. I told them, ‘Well, I’m male.’ After, I’d dwell on the thought. I knew I was — maybe not Ruby per se, but I knew I was different,” she recalled. “But I had a negative experience in therapy, so I didn’t come out immediately when I probably should have. Then, seven years later, still being Tom at the time, I told the person who is now my fiancé that I am probably trans. And they said, ‘I love you for who you are.’”
Curtis did share that it was hard at first to transition fro knowing their daughter as Tom, to her new identity as Ruby.
“I haven’t ever heard her say that name. It so doesn’t fit anymore. That was, of course, the hardest thing — just the regularity of the word, the name that you’d given a child, that you’ve been saying their whole life.”
While Jamie explained that sometimes she and her husband forget to use the correct pronouns, Ruby does not hold it against them.
“This is our family’s experience,” Curtis said. “I am here to support Ruby. That is my job, just as it is to care and love and support her older sister, Annie, in her journeys. I’m a grateful student. I’m learning so much from Ruby. The conversation is ongoing. But I want to know: How can I do this better?”
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