“Love your child because that person is your child whether it’s the person you wanted him or her to be or not,” said Republican Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen in a CBS special with her transgender son.
Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and her transgender son, Rodrigo Lehtinen, shared their story for the first time Monday in an exclusive interview with CBS.
Joshua Roberts / Reuters
“I came from a family where politics was very much talked about openly, calmly with respect on a regular basis,” said Rodrigo Lehtinen as he discussed his coming out in the interview.
The oldest child of Ros-Lehtinen, 28-year-old Rodrigo came out as gay in High School and made the decision to transition in college.
Rodrigo sent his parents a coming out letter and included several informational pamphlets about what it means to identify as transgender.
“As parents we wanted to make sure Rigo understood we were totally fine with it,” Ros-Lehtinen said of the coming out letter they received from their son in 2007.
Rodrigo's father, former Florida U.S. Attorney Dexter Lehtinen, was also present for the interview.
