‘Real Housewives’ Heather Dubrow explains why she’s going public about her trans son

Last week, “Real Housewives of Orange County” star Heather Dubrow posted a tribute to her youngest son, Ace, for International Son’s Day. She shared a sweet photo and heartwarming caption to her Instagram account, and many people flew to the comments section to criticize her for sharing that her youngest child, Ace, is trans.

“It’s International sons day! We love you, our youngest son, Ace ❤️,” she wrote in the caption. “Our job as parents is to give our kids a safe and supportive environment so they can grow up as healthy, happy, confident, independent humans. Since Ace is a 12 year old child, with a long life ahead of him – we will let him tell his own story someday if he chooses to do so. All we can say is Ace, we love you so much and we are proud to be your parents. Your brother and sisters love and support you too ❤️.”

Because the post received so much attention, Dubrow opened up about it on her podcast, “Let’s Talk with Heather Dubrow.”

“I need to clarify some things,” she began. “With all the support, of course, there’s always going to be hate. You’re going to have haters. You’re going to have people that don’t understand. There were two main comments that I just want to address and one was why now?”

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Because Ace is 12, many people in the comments section lambasted her for confirming his gender identity at such a young age.

“And I get that he’s 12 years old. Why now?” she continued. “As a mom, you look at your kids and all you want to do is protect them. You want to put helmets on them. You want to wrap them in bubble wrap and just pray that nothing ever hurts them physically or emotionally.”

She stresses that she wants to protect her children, but also knows that her family has been in the public eye for many years. Ace, in particular, has been on television and in the public eye since he was an infant.

“It’s really just all about protecting my kids. We are not trying to leverage our child for content, and I’m just going to leave that there,” she said.

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She also made another great point—it’s better for her or her family to comment on Ace’s identity before it became public fodder or speculation. Though she wants Ace to tell his story when he’s ready to, and phrased her Instagram post in a very thoughtful way to do just that, she knows not everyone would be respectful about it.

“There are other people who want to tell your children’s stories’ for them,” Dubrow said. “Something had to be said by us before someone else made a statement.”

Dubrow and her husband, Dr. Terry Dubrow, are also parents to twins Nick and Max, 19, and Kat, 16. Last year, she shared that her daughter Max is bisexual and her other daughter Kat identifies as a lesbian. Therefore, it’s incredibly important to her to not only support her children, but all kids in the LGBTQ+ community.

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“Being a parent, as so many of you know, is the hardest job on the planet,” Dubrow said on her podcast.

“But being a mother to me is my most important job ever. I take my kids and all your kids to my heart, always every day. And I know that I was given these four kids for a reason. And not only will I protect them and fight for their safety and their rights and their freedom, but I promise I’m going to help you protect yours too.”

With trans youth being targeted and used as political pawns in the conservative agenda nationwide, it’s incredibly valuable to see a mom with such a public platform using it to show her support demonstrate a great example of unconditional love.