What to Know
Melissa Etheridge recently recalled the time her late son came out to her, but it wasn’t what you might expect. The singer, 64, is a lesbian who publicly came out in 1993. When her son Beckett was 11, he decided to come out to her, too—but as straight.
Melissa shared the positive memory with Kelly Clarkson during an episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show, when the two women discussed how gender norms can affect kids, even when the pressure to act or look a certain way isn’t coming from their parents.
Both women described themselves as “tomboys” when they were growing up.
Because so many things were, and still are, very gendered, Melissa and Kelly both described feeling like “tomboys” just because they enjoyed things that were stereotyped as being for boys, like sports or Hot Wheels. Melissa actually has a song about this, which has lyrics like, “No Easy-Bake, no Barbie dolls, I got my Hot Wheels and my Super Ball, My G.I. Joe marching down the hall.”
On the show, Kelly said, “I was a total tomboy. I was interested in everything, and it was weird for a lot of my little girlfriends.” Melissa commented on how “it’s funny how you never think that children’s toys are so male or female-oriented.”
Though Kelly and Melissa both noted that things have changed a bit compared to when they were younger, the gendered expectations are still very much there—and as a parent, they can be quite difficult to deal with.
Kelly told a story about her 10-year-old son.
She explained that she likes that young boys have examples of men who are defying gender stereotypes, such as Harry Styles. Even so, Kelly’s son still revealed that someone told him he couldn’t paint his nails because he’s a boy. This clearly bothered Kelly. As a parent, these kinds of comments from other people can be disheartening and frustrating when you just want your kid to be comfortable being themselves.
Kelly said, “I was like, ‘You can do whatever you want.’ And so there still is that influence of like, what is boy, what is girl, sometimes. And it’s annoying, especially when you’re a parent, you’re like, ‘Just do whatever you like. It’s fine.'”
Melissa recalled when her son came out as straight.
Though kids are influenced by their peers, parenting obviously plays a significant role as well, as evidenced by Melissa’s story about her son. Melissa said, “I remember my oldest son, Beckett, who actually passed away. When he was about 11, he came to me, (and) he goes, ‘Mom, I’m sorry, but I think I’m straight.'”
Kelly clearly found this hysterical and called the story “incredible.” She laughed about how Melissa’s son seemed to be saying, “I’m so sorry I let you down,” just because he thought he wasn’t queer. Melissa then joked, “I tried to tell him it was a phase but…” Kelly chimed in with, “We were trying to pray the straight away…”
Earlier in their conversation, Melissa also said, “The kids come in who they are anyway and just watching them find that is really (special).”
Melissa’s son Beckett died at age 21 in 2020. He died from causes related to opioid addiction. She has three other children: 29-year-old daughter Bailey, and 19-year-old twins Johnnie and Miller.
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