Magic Johnson rings in Pride Month with a birthday celebration of his gay son
Magic's love for EJ knows no bounds.
Magic Johnson is beginning Pride Month with a special birthday message to his gay son.
The NBA great celebrated EJ’s birthday Tuesday with multiple posts on social media. In them, Johnson showcases his love for EJ and the person he’s become.
“Happy Birthday to my son, EJ!,” he wrote on Instagram, to the tune of more than 85,000 likes. “EJ is amazing and intelligent and has helped so many other people live life as their authentic selves, comfortable in their own skin.”
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Magic followed up with another post following their birthday dinner. “What a fabulous dinner to celebrate EJ’s birthday tonight! As a parent, it’s always a joy to see my kids happy!,” he said.
We couldn’t have put it better ourselves! EJ is also wearing dresses in both pics, showing off his true expression (and looking fabulous in the process)!
When TMZ outed EJ in 2013, Magic and his wife, Cookie, publicly supported their son without equivocation. “Cookie and I love EJ and support him in every way,” he said at the time. “We’re very proud of him.”
In later years, Magic has admitted he didn’t immediately arrive at a place of total acceptance. The basketball icon took some time to process EJ’s sexuality.
“When you grow up in team sports, you’re thinking, ‘Is he gonna play sports?’” Johnson told Variety in 2022. “And then when I saw that he liked dolls and to play dress-up … ‘What are you doing?’”
In the same interview, EJ says his parents were the last people to know he was gay. Magic enforced insulting rules, such as barring EJ from wearing scarves and other effeminate accessories in their Beverly Hills home.
“[My parents] were the last people that I really had to talk to about it. It wasn’t new for me, but they had to really take that in and digest it,” EJ said. “Especially my dad, because he was really the last person to talk to. I think it was just a lot for him to swallow in that conversation. A lot of just going back and forth. And he just was rattling off about things that weren’t particularly nice. But he’s not somebody who works great being cornered or surprised.”
EJ’s account of his father’s evolution is interesting, because Magic has always publicly supported the LGBTQ+ community. His HIV disclosure in 1991 was a landmark moment in the fight for HIV awareness. At that point, the virus was still commonly viewed as a “gay problem.”
As one of the greatest basketball players ever, Magic’s disclosure saved the lives of countless queer men.
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“I tell him all the time, ‘I’m so proud of you.'”
“Along the way Magic encountered the same sort of prejudice and discrimination that many gay men had to deal with, but not once do I recall Magic denouncing the gay community in order to ‘clear his name,’” wrote out Los Angeles sportswriter LZ Granderson in 2008.
Magic says the turning point in his embrace of EJ’s identity arrived when he realized the impact his son’s disclosure had on other LGBTQ+ folx.
“When he finally announced it to the world, I saw all the letters that came in around the world, that he affected all these other young people who wanted to come out to their parents and gave them the strength to do it,” Magic said on the Club Shay Shay podcast with host Shannon Sharpe, a Pro Football Hall of Famer himself.
Magic continued, “I tell him all the time, ‘I’m so proud of you. Live your life just like I’m living my life. Love who you want to love. Dad is going to support you all the way.’”
EJ, 32, broke barriers when he starred in his own 2014 reality series, EJNYC, which was one of the first programs to profile an LGBTQ+ person of color. His fashion style, both ostentatious and androgynous, represents his free-flowing style of self-expression.
“That is what beauty is all about, because it is in the eye of the beholder, honey,” he said in 2017, via the New York Times.
Cookie, in an Instagram post of her own Tuesday, also shared her love for EJ.
“Happy Birthday my EJ! Wishing you the best birthday ever. Continue to be your most fabulous self!! I love and admire you so much. Can’t wait to celebrate with you today. I love you so much!,” she wrote.
Magic and Cookie’s embrace of EJ mirrors the love another NBA legend and his wife, Dwyane Wade and actress Gabrielle Union-Wade, shower upon their trans daughter, Zaya. Dwyane says Zaya knew her true gender identity when she was three years old, and credits her with teaching him and Gabrielle what it means to be trans.
“My daughter was my first interaction when it comes to having to deal with this conversation,” Dwyane told NBC News. “Hopefully I’m dealing with it the right way. Inside our home we see the smile on my daughter’s face, we see the confidence that she’s able to walk around and be herself and that’s when you know you’re doing right.”
At its core, Pride Month is about highlighting love and visibility. It’s great to see sports icons like Magic and D-Wade lead the way.
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