A little bit of back story.
I mentioned my mom.
So I met my dad when I was 20, right?
Not an original story.
Nothing special about that.
But sometimes your life-- what's there and what's
not there doesn't form you about the kind
of person you're going to be when it's you're shot,
all right?
So I knew, I'm an attached dad.
I'm there.
So that's important to me.
And so my child, the first one that's born,
went to a princess party as a ninja at six.
And I remember looking at my baby like, I love this kid,
man.
That's what I'm talking about.
This that rebel spirit that I enjoy so much.
[LAUGHS]
Get them princesses, right?
You know?
[LAUGHS] And so as my child's getting older, I'm like,
all right, I think my child's probably gay, you know?
You know? I'm looking.
I'm from New York.
I mean, you've got to-- - Right.
What's in front of you. Outside, the subway.
Is it safe or not?
You've got to look at what's there.
Middle school, I'm watching all the friends fall apart.
And I'm like, OK, you know?
I'm like-- all right, the girls are
probably like, you're not talking about boys,
blah, blah, blah, blah.
I'm like, all right, I'm kind of eyeballing it.
I know when a conversation is coming.
But I'm-- like, I'm prepared for it.
Because I'm like, you're gay.
I'm like, great.
We can chop that up real quick.
It ain't gonna be nothing, you know?
So I'm in New Orleans.
This is 2019, coming off the first season
of "Queen of the South."
I'm all gangstered up and everything.
So the family finally comes around June
to the hotel, got the plane.
And my kid's face is all screwed up--
Tight.
--tight.
He sits us down in the hotel room and he's like, OK,
I'm trans.
I'm a boy.
I was like, what?
[LAUGHS] You were like, I was ready for the other thing.
But what is this? - The fuck?
I thought we was going to be the gay thing.
Like--
[LAUGHS] I'd already choosed that door.
What? What is that, this door?
My bad. I'm ready for this conversation.
[LAUGHS]
I could chop that up. I got that.
I have the manual for that one.
What is this one? - I know what to do.
I don't have the manual for this one.
But my boy's an overachiever, right?
[LAUGHS]
[VOCALIZES] That ain't-- that ain't it, Dad.
So July 2014 I moved to LA.
My son started kindergarten in August of 2013,
and I moved him down with his dad.
We were doing all of these things in Sacramento
and really building this life, and like--
- His was very much disrupted. - It was.
But we have an amazing co-parenting relationship now,
right? - Yeah.
Seven years in.
But seven years ago it was not.
So there was-- - Yeah.
[LAUGHS]
--the major thing was that there was
a custody issue once he moved.
And so that's why it was just like I had to go.
Yeah.
I've got to go do what I've gotta do.
Yeah.
So we're engaged, all this stuff.
But I was just like, I have to be there for my son.
I moved in July 2014, and she moved down in September--
- Yeah. - 20--
Yeah.
I think that--
I think that when we keep talking about how,
like, organically everything sort of rolls out for us,
it was clear that we were moving forward in everything
we were doing with a lot of emotion.
And then I think logic sort of kind of shows up for you.
You know what I mean?
And I think that's what happened with Cameron,
with having to prioritize this baby, this human life.
That is obviously the most important thing.
My youngest is a born empath.
He's got compassion coming out his fingernails.
So he had been working with the eldest one to--
To formulate this.
To formulate to how to talk to us, to get him ready.
I think they were more worried about me.
And I was real clear.
You know?
The benefit of having a mother or a parent or someone that
loves you really, really, really well is you kind
of know what it feels like.
You know?
And you know what that is.
And by that being present, you know what it's not.
You know?
So I'm loved very well.
And I got how to be a parent from my mom.
So my perspective at that moment was like--
I was completely shocked.
Right?
Like, I didn't have any--
I was not ready for that.
But what you can take off the list is--
Rejection. Rejection.
We're not have-- we're not doing that.
That is not even on there. Yeah.
You-- I am supposed to take--
do my best by you until the homeboy snatches
the breath out of my lungs.
Until I'm done here.
And then from the other side, I'm still supposed to--
I'm clear.
I'm still supposed to watch over you.
That's how it's going to go.
So what I didn't have was understanding.
I didn't know what it was.
Yeah.
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