Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen is the child of Miami Republican Congresswomen Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Rep. Ros-Lehtinen is the first Hispanic woman elected to Congress. She has been a part of the Republican congressional apparatus for 25 years now. About nine years ago, Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen told his parents, via a letter left on his bed, that he was transgender.
His shocked parents, Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Miami Republican, and Dexter Lehtinen, who served as the top federal prosecutor here, did not hesitate. They grabbed the phone and told him that they loved him and that family trumped all, and asked him to come home. But as with many parents of transgender children, they were also overwhelmed by fear: The future they saw for their then 21-year-old, whom they had named Amanda, would be pockmarked with discrimination and bullying, if not outright violence.
It was this visceral reaction to want to protect her child that drove Ms. Ros-Lehtinen to break from her party’s skepticism or hostility on gay and transgender issues — a stance evident now in North Carolina’s battle over transgender bathroom visits — and become a conspicuous advocate in Congress and more recently in public service announcements. On Monday, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, her husband and her son, now 30, will appear in the latest one for SAVE, a longtime South Florida gay rights group that hopes to engage the Latino community here.
According to Rodrigo, his experience as an out transgender person was a five-year process but an important moment came about three years in:
A turning point came when he told his 86-year-old abuelo in 2010. “We were terrified to tell him,” Mr. Heng-Lehtinen said. Instead of becoming angry, his grandfather shrugged. At his age, he said, nothing was more important than the happiness of his grandchild.
“It was an incredibly simple and loving response,” Mr. Heng-Lehtinen added.
Rep. Ros-Lehtinen adds:
So many kids are thrown out of their homes. So many turn to suicide; and what a waste of a precious life.
Personal stories matter. We can argue very easily and vociferously about Mrs. Ros-Lehtinen’s other political views, but on this policy issue, on this civil rights issue, we are purple.
Here is Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen speaking for Moms for Transgender Equality.