The Walking Dead star Khary Payton declared that his 11-year-old son “was born female but has always identified as a boy.”
“This my kid. One of the most happy, well-adjusted individuals I’ve ever known. My son, Karter,” wrote Payton in an Instagram post which featured a photo of his child who appeared to be skateboarding, clad in a helmet, elbow pads, and wrist guard.
“Karter with a K because it reminded him of my name. He chose it. You see, he was born female but has always identified as a boy,” Payton continued.
“He thought it would be cool if I announced it on social media,” added Payton. “I told him that there would be so many supporters but also a lot of jerks who would be harsh. He said, ‘Yeah, I know about trolls, daddy. I can handle trolls.'”
Khary Payton and Jayson Warner Smith in The Walking Dead Gene Page/AMC Film Holdings LLC.
The actor — who plays King Ezekiel on AMC’s long-running show, The Walking Dead — also said nothing beats watching one’s own child “be true to themselves.”
“Man, there is nothing more beautiful than watching your child feel the joy of exploring what it means to be true to themselves,” said Payton. “This is his journey, and I am here for it. I hope you all have the opportunity to feel the unquenchable love that I am feeling right now.”
Last year, it was reported that Payton’s wife, Stacy Reed Payton, had filed for divorce after nine years of marriage to the actor. They have two children together — 11-year-old transgender son Karter, and 8-year-old daughter Maya.
Payton is not the only celebrity to have revealed his endorsement of his child’s gender dysphoria. Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon also revealed in an Instagram post that her son Samuel was born female.
Actress Charlize Theron revealed that her adopted daughter Jackson is transgender — and has been since she was three years old. Actor Colin Mochrie also shared his thoughts about finding out that his child has gender dysphoria.
“The very first thing I [thought] when Kinley told us was, ‘God, let her be safe,’ because there are people out there who aren’t as enlightened as others,” said Mochrie.
Speaking of enlightenment, author of Trans Life Survivors, Walt Heyer — who identified as a transgender woman for 8 years before regretting his decision and switching back to male — says that looking back in retrospect, he now realizes that the consequences of his grandmother affirming his curiosity in dresses when he was 4 years old turned out to be “very destructive” later on in his life.
“I think it’s actually evil, and it’s child abuse to indicate that you can change genders at such a young age,” said Heyer on an episode of PragerU’s The Candace Owens Show. “And I’m speaking from 74 years of experience,” added Heyer, who now dedicates his time in helping others who regret gender change.
Heyer added that his grandmother encouraging his curiosity about dresses and allowing him to wear a purple dress later led to his own confusion about gender, as well as sexual molestation by his uncle. “It’s child abuse in its results, because — once my uncle realized that I had been wearing a purple dress, then I became his opportunity — he started sexually molesting me, because of the purple dress.”
“What happens when you begin to introduce these ideas that you can change your gender — is you begin the early sexualization of children, which is abhorrent,” continued Heyer. “It shouldn’t be done. It shouldn’t be allowed. We’re interfering with their natural development.”
“These are children that are exploring every opportunity and trusting adults to guide them, and to nurture them properly, but introducing all this sexuality and all of these things at such an early age is very disturbing and today,” he added. “I work with hundreds of people who have been through this, and what I’m seeing is that up to 50 percent of them have been sexually abused.”
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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