Jay-Z, Mandy Moore & More Stars Who Have LGBTQ Parents

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Pride Month is not just for the members of the LGBTQIA+ community. It’s also for the children of gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer/questioning, intersex, asexual, and transgender parents. Though the community continues to face hardships and stigma as parents, celebs like Mandy Moore, 37, prove that the fears over LGBTQIA+ parents are wholly unfounded. Mandy was 23 when her mother left her father. Both of her brothers are gay, and Mandy told People in 2017 that she’s proud that they’re living their truth.

“Nobody is hiding who they are. There are no secrets in our lives,” she continued. “I love and support my mom and my brothers with my whole heart. And nothing makes me happier than seeing anybody live their authentic self and to choose love. If anyone can find love, I support it, I salute you, and I celebrate that.”

Kylie and Kendall Jenner were the biggest cheerleaders of Caitlyn Jenner when she came out as trans in 2015. They recently called her their “hero.” Guardians of the Galaxy star and WWE champion Dave Bautista sent love to his mother in 2019. “This my mom,” he captioned an IG photo of her from the 1970s. “Loud and proud when it wasn’t ok to be loud and proud. She never apologized for who she was or who she loved. Which is why I never did either. And never will! A strong lesbian raised a strong man, and I couldn’t be more proud of her. … She is the reason I am who I am. Every decent part of me as a human being is directly because of my mother. I celebrate #lgbt Pride month with her and everyone else from the community that I was raised in.”

JAY-Z‘s mom came out on his 2017 album 4:44. Gloria Carter‘s duet with her son on the song “Smile” left an indelible impact, and it’s one that was celebrated months after she came out. “Imagine having to live your life as someone else and you think you’re protecting your kids. And for my mother to have to live as someone that she wasn’t and hide and protect her kids … [she] didn’t want to embarrass her kids for all this time. And for her to sit in front of me and say, ‘I think I love someone…’ I mean, I really cried. That’s a real story,” the rapper, 51, shared in 2018, per People. “I cried because I was so happy for her that she was free.”

Despite so much love and acceptance from the aforementioned public figures and the other celebs raised by LGBT+ parents, couples within the community still face stigmas and challenges when it comes to starting families – especially if they wish to adopt. In January 2020, Tennessee became the 11th state to pass a bill that protects religious groups to deny adoption and fostering to LGBT+ families due to religious beliefs. In October, the Supreme court has agreed to hear Fulton v. City of Philadelphia to rule on if such organizations are allowed to do this under the banner of “religious freedom,” or if such practices amount to discrimination.

A 2019 study from Tufts Medical Center found that almost two-thirds of gay fathers in the United States experience stigma as homosexual dads, most often in religious settings, per Reuters. However, a 2015 University of Oregon survey of 19,000 studies related to same-sex parenting found that children raised by gay and lesbian couples were no different than those raised by parents of the opposite sex. There are about 400,000 children currently within foster care in the United States, about a quarter of whom are still waiting to be adopted. Take a look through the gallery above to see more stars who have parents that identify as members of the LGBTQIA+ community!