Marlon Wayans says his transgender child taught him what unconditional love is and he lost people who are narrow-minded

On Wednesday, April 30, a new episode of Michelle Obama's IMO podcast dropped on YouTube, featuring siblings Damon and Marlon Wayans as guests. In the episode, the sibling duo discussed multiple subjects with Obama, including their childhood, working together as an entertainment family, and their experiences of raising children.

Hours after the podcast episode was released, @ArtOfDialogue_ shared a four-minute video clip from it on X, where Michelle asked Marlon Wayans about the journey of "dealing with a child that's transgender," calling him a "role model" for the same.

"Their transition really taught me what real unconditional love was. When they went through the transition, I actually went through the transition - I went from denial to complete acceptance. And it took me a week to get there, and what I've learned as a parent is, for you to stop loving your child because of their choice and their life, that's a poor reflection on you."

Wayans then went on to speak about his role as a father, which was to always protect, defend, and respect their child. He added:

"I lost people who were small-minded, small-hearted... for everyone I lose, I gain a 150 more."

The tweet has since gone viral, receiving more than 155K views and 3K likes.

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Marlon Wayans opened up about his transgender child on The Jennifer Hudson Show last year

Marlon Wayans has spoken about his transgender child, Kai, before. In a 2023 episode of The Jennifer Hudson Show, he shared that Kai is still the same person, just with a beard now. When Hudson asked what he learned through the journey, Wayans reflected on his own growth in accepting Kai’s identity.:

"I learned that I'm a lot stronger than I thought I was. learned that my family — my brothers, my sisters — have prepared me to be a rock in our family... I went through the five stages of grief to get to the beautiful, magical place called acceptance."

Marlon Wayans also talked about the experience of losing his parents in recent years. His mother, Elvira Alethia, passed away in July 2020, at the age of 89, with his father, Howell Stouten, passing away three years later, in April 2023. Wayans said:

"All this was happening to me at one time, and then it was just like this universal thing: acceptance. And once you accept, you release, give yourself to God and then everything is all right. It's better, actually."

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Earlier in 2025, Marlon Wayans was caught in an online feud with rapper Soulja Boy, in which the latter dragged Wayans' son, writing about "that f***ot sh*t running in the family". In response, Marlon mentioned that the rapper could get cancelled for using "transphobic slander like this" if he had a real career.