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How Broadway Star Lea Salonga Supports Her Trans Son Nic, 18: 'Meet Your Kid Where They Are' (Exclusive)
Broadway star Lea Salonga and her 18-year-old son Nic Chien, who was assigned female at birth and came out as transmasculine, speak to PEOPLE exclusively about what support and acceptance look like: 'You have to raise your child the way your child needs to be raised,' the Tony Award-winning actress says of parenting.
Although Nic — the only child of Salonga and her entrepreneur husband Robert Chien — isn’t having quite the whirlwind introduction to adulthood that his mother did, it has been tumultuous in a different way: Assigned female at birth, he identified as transmasculine at age 14, and began taking testosterone this January. Even with a parent as understanding as Salonga, who has advocated for LGBTQ+ rights since the AIDS crisis struck members of the theater community, Nic’s transition has been an emotional process. For Nic, conquering the world on his own terms means following in his mother’s footsteps onstage — and “playing boy characters,” a lifelong dream, he says.
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