'I identify as a trans man, a faggy queen...': Warren Beatty and Annette Bening's son Stephen speaks about being transgender

It's no secret in Hollywood that Warren Beatty and Annette Bening had a hard time accepting the transitioning of their eldest daughter to a boy.

It's a story which appears further confirmed by a recent video in which their son Stephen Ira Beatty, born Kathlyn Elizabeth Beatty, lists the people who have been most supportive of his gender switch.

Stephen, 20, talks openly about his transition to being a boy from the age of 14, and lists his friends and peers as his greatest supporters.

Nowhere in the six-and-a-half-minute video is there mention of his famous parents.

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Eloquent activist: Stephen Ira Beatty appeared in this video for WeHappyTrans.com. He calls himself 'a trans man, a faggy queen, a homosexual, a queer, a nerd fighter, a writer an artist and a guy who needs a haircut'

In a video made earlier this year for the transgender support website WeHappyTrans.com, Stephen answers a series of questions, including one which asks who has been most supportive of his transition from female to male.

'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,' says Stephen, who appears to be standing in his college dorm room.



The eldest of Hollywood power couple Beatty and Bening, Stephen is a sophomore student at the prestigious Sarah Lawrence College in New York.

Gender bender: In the video, Stephen says he likes to be able to dress up in feminine accessories like jewellery, 'without being gendered as female'

He is also an outspoken activist for the transgender community, and as part of his grass-roots involvement writes a blog for the WeHappyTrans website calle d 'Super Mattachine'.

The name of his blog refers to the Mattachine Society, one of the first gay rights groups founded by Harry Hay in 1948.

Introducing himself on the video, the 20-year-old says:



'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.'

Speaking very fast and showing himself to possess plenty of humour as well as eloquence, Stephen expands on the subject of what he most enjoys about life since beginning transition:



'I love that I'm able to do fem without being gendered as female,' he says.

Public transition: Annette Bening at the airport with her son Stephen, born Kathlyn, who came out as a boy six years ago



'It's rare that my gender is misread [now that I've transitioned] based on my fem presentation, which I really appreciate.'



He explains that he's not presenting his 'fem' side in the video, but says 'I wear like lots of necklaces and rings and ribbons around my neck and things like that'.

He goes on: '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 totally a privilege.

'It's nice to finally have my identity be legible to people.'

Stephen says his personal style icons include Truman Capote 'and also any male-identified person who wears thigh-highs or garters'.

Hollywood royalty: Annette Bening and Warren Beatty, shown here at last year's Academy Awards in Los Angeles, reportedly had a hard time coming to terms with their eldest child's gender change



He runs through a long list of his trans-gender role models, tipping his hat to little-known historical figures and pioneers in the trans-gender community, and showing himself to be incredibly well read and politically aware.

On the changes he would most like to see in the world, Stephen says he would 'like people to be more intentional with their actions and with their language and realise that words mean things'.

'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,' he says.



Early days: Annette Bening, Warren Beatty and their children in 2005 (L-R) Isabel, Ella, Benjamin, and Kathlyn



Stephen also says he believes English in high school in America should be taught differently, with a focus on empathy.



Answering the question of what he is personally doing to make changes he wants to see in the world, Stephen says he is writing poetry and fiction and critical work 'that will hopefully aid people in the project of imagining the world more complexly'.



Finally, Stephen says: 'I am going to have babies, and give them onesies, with "This is what a trans-feminist looks like" on them ... which is something I've decided to definitely do.'

