Miami

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen Lends Support to Transgender Community in Personal PSA

Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen along with her family, is lending her support to the transgender community in a very personal PSA.

Ros-Lehtinen will take the stage at Miami-Dade College Monday along with her son Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, a transgender man, in support of the "Family is Everything" initiative.

The campaign is sponsored by longtime South Florida LGBT rights group SAVE.

Mother and son appeared alongside Ros-Lehtinen's husband, Miami Republican Dexter Lehtinen, in a very personal Spanish-language PSA for the initiative.

"Our son is transgender," Ros-Lehtinen says in the PSA. "We loved him as Amanda and now as Rodrigo."

In the PSA, Ros-Lehtinen says that while she may disagree with President Barack Obama on a number of topics, she stands with his directive to allow transgender students to use whatever restroom they feel most comfortable using.

The congresswoman says her experience as a mother to a transgender child is a motivator behind her advocacy.

SAVE will launch the "Family is Everything" initiative on Monday from Miami-Dade College's Wolfson Campus.

For more information, visit SAVE on the web.

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