From Amanda to Rodrigo: CBS4 interviews Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s transgender son
From Amanda to Rodrigo: CBS4 interviews Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s transgender son
By Steve Rothaus -
srothaus@MiamiHerald.com
11/18/2014 11:57 AM
| Updated: 11/18/2014 9:35 PM
In 2010, the Miami Herald first reported that U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s daughter Amanda was living openly as Rodrigo, a transgender man and LGBT rights activist.
CBS4 News on Monday aired an interview with Ros-Lehtinen; her husband, former acting U.S. Attorney Dexter Lehtinen; and Rodrigo, now donor services coordinator for GLAAD.
From CBS4 reporter Jim DeFede:
Rodrigo Lehtinen grew up in a household grounded in Republican politics.
His mother, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, was the first Cuban-American elected to Congress and has served in the House for the last 25 years. His father, Dexter Lehtinen, is the former US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida who oversaw the prosecution of Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega. His grandfather, Enrique Ros, was an old-time Cuban-American hardliner and author who railed against Castro until his death last year at the age of 89.
“I came from a family where politics was very much talked about openly, calmly with respect on a regular basis,” he said. “So engaging that type of conversation about political issues or things that might be controversial is not foreign in my family.”
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/gay-south-florida/article3995464.html#storylink=cpy
(Video follows.)
