'Hollywood Exes' Drea Kelly Opens Up About Transgender Son With R. Kelly, "Mama Accepts And Loves You"

Hollywood Exes star, Drea Kelly opened up about her 14-year-old daughter, Jay, coming out as a transgender boy in June.

In an interview with VH1, the reality star said that she supports her daughter's decision and helps her deal with the negative backlash.

All I can say about Jay is he makes it so easy to be a proud mom. For parents, we need to realize, [our kids] have their own journey. Parents get it wrong when they don't support their children. They have to go out and fight every day and face this world. The first battle should not be at home. I think that a lot of children in the LGBT community don't succeed because the one thing they need the most is foundation."

She added, "I just tell Jay all the time, baby you won the war. You're gonna have a lot of battles but you won the war. Mama accepts and loves you for who you are. Your family does. My dad is a retired military naval officer and all he said was, "I'm gonna mess up sometimes and [use the feminine pronoun] 'she' but I'm gonna eventually get the 'he' thing. Just give grandpa some time. I'm gonna get it dude." That was it."

The former ex-wife of singer R. Kelly said that it took time for her to adjust to refer as "her son" instead of "her daughter" and wants others to just accept her choice as well.  

"You know it took a minute for that to click in my head. Then I have to stop and come back and say, in the urban community this is like a first. [For my family] this isn't this shocking thing. I need [people], especially in the black community, to stop burying their heads in the sand. Let's quit playing that game that you just chose to be gay or trans." She said, "What we choose every day is what we wear. We need to stop worrying about people's gender and sexuality and think about the choices we're making with our youth, period. That's what we need to focus on in my community."