Busy Philipps on Supporting Her Gay Child Who Uses They/Them

Actress Busy Philipps has written in an Instagram post that she feels like she "won" because of her 12-year-old child, Birdie, who is gay and uses they/them pronouns.

"I feel like I won all of it because OH MY GOD I get to know this person and THAT is the magic of being a parent," Philipps wrote in a post last month with a picture of Birdie in a blue suit Philipps bought them for Christmas.

On her podcast Busy Philipps Is Doing Her Best last week, Philipps said that Birdie is her "out kid" and shared their pronouns. The LGBTQ+ ally and star of shows including Dawson's Creek, ER, and Cougar Town, said that she'd been referring to Birdie with the wrong pronouns, which led to an "intense conversation."

"I said, 'You know, Bird, I've been doing a bad job with the pronouns,' because Birdie said that they would like their pronouns to be they/them and I haven't been doing it, 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 said on the podcast. "And then Bird was like ... 'You can talk about that I'm gay and out. You can talk about my pronouns. That would be cool with me. That's great.'"

Philipps then said that she encouraged Birdie to be entirely themself.

"It doesn't have to look like anything anybody has ever seen or anything that's ever been modeled for you, because maybe it doesn't exist," she said. "You get to choose what will make you feel fulfilled and happy."