Actress and podcast host Busy Philipps has revealed that her eldest child, Birdie Leigh, is gay and prefers they/them pronouns. On the Dec. 31 episode of her Busy Philipps Is Doing Her Best podcast, Philipps shared that Birdie, now 12, came out when they were 10.
“For those of you who are my friends listening at home, this is the first you’re hearing that Birdie is gay and out,” Philipps told her cohosts Shantira Jackson and Caissie St. Onge. “Birdie told us at 10 years old and we immediately… I mean obviously, I knew that Birdie knew.”
The former “Dawson’s Creek” star also spoke about Birdie’s pronouns.
“I said, ‘You know, Bird, I’ve been doing a bad job with the pronouns,'” she said. “Because Birdie said that they would like their pronouns to be they/them, and I haven’t been doing it, and I said because I have this public persona and I want Birdie to be in control of their own narrative and not have to answer to anybody outside of our friends and family if they don’t want to.”
Philipps continued, saying that Birdie gave her permission to be open about it. “‘You can talk about how I’m gay and out; you can talk about my pronouns. That would be cool with me. That’s great.’ So I said, ‘OK, I can talk about it on the podcast.'”
“So Birdie, my out kid, prefers they/them,” Philipps said. She added that she’s getting the pronouns wrong sometimes, but she’s working on it.
Philipps, who also shares daughter Cricket Pearl, 7, with her screenwriter husband Marc Silverstein, has always been open about her parenting experiences and quick to dispel the myth of the “perfect parent.”
“I just think that there is no one way and no right way,” she told Parents. “I think we are moving to a place where people are sort of acknowledging that, but these messages come to moms all the time. You have to breastfeed your baby for five years or she isn’t going to have a good immune system. You have to potty train by this age. You have to stop bottles by this age. There is not one prescription that makes the perfect mom. I think we can dispel that myth. You have to do what is right for you and what is right for your family.”
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