Fathers, be good to your daughters. In a new interview with Variety, Liev Schreiber showed love and support for his sixteen-year-old trans daughter, Kai.
Schreiber shares Kai and elder daughter Sasha with his ex-wife Naomi Watts. The Ray Donovan star says Kai never officially came out as trans to him or her mother. “Kai was always who Kai is,” Schreiber said. “I suppose the most profound moment was her asking us to change her pronouns. To be honest with you, it didn’t feel like that big of a deal to me, only because Kai had been so feminine for so long.”
Kai made her modeling debut in March, walking the runway for Valentino. She proceeded to star in an ad campaign for the Italian fashion house. Kai is set to join her father and his wife, Taylor Neisen, at the Ali Forney Center’s A Place at the Table Gala on Friday, May 9th in New York City. The gala raises money for the Ali Forney center, which provides housing and support for homeless LGBTQ youth.
Schreiber is well aware that by virtue of being his daughter, Kai doesn’t necessarily face the same challenges as other women in the trans community. “This isn’t just about representing the trans community. This is actually a community of people who don’t have great resources, who don’t have access to help, who aren’t being protected and looked after by their families,” the actor said. “These are people who are being rejected. These are people who are experiencing the harshest version of humanity that we can offer, and some of them are not surviving it.”
He also knows he is not able to necessarily give parenting advice to other parents of trans children. “I don’t know the answer for your kid,” he said. “I don’t know what it’s like for you to be a trans dad. I don’t know how you were brought up. I don’t know what religion you encountered or what your spirituality is. And for me to tell you what I think about my kid feels like an overstep.”
Schreiber did, however, have this piece of advice. “I guess if I would say anything to someone who’s having trouble with their trans teen or their adolescent trans kid, it’s ‘Teenagers are a headache, They’re hard,’” Schreiber said. “It doesn’t matter whether they’re trans or not because you’ll come out of this. But a trans teen is going to be a teen. They’re such a pain so much of the time, and Kai is as feisty and outspoken as they come.”
Schreiber’s not the only famous father to speak out in support of his trans daughter. Last week, Robert De Niro made headlines after his daughter, Airyn, announced that she was trans in a story for Them. Like Schreiber, De Niro said he did not think Airyn being trans was “a big deal” and expressed love for all his children. But not every trans woman with a well-known father is fortunate enough to have his support. 20-year-old Vivian Wilson recently spoke out against her estranged father, Elon Musk, in an interview with Teen Vogue. In the story, Wilson called Musk, with whom she hasn’t had any contact and from whom she hasn’t received any money since 2020, a “pathetic man-child” and “fucking cringe.”
Thankfully, Schreiber is fully supportive of his trans daughter. “Kai is such a fighter,” he said. “It’s important that she goes, ‘Hey, I am trans,’ and, ‘Look at me.’”
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