The 'I believe I can fly' singer R Kelly seems to be reluctant to accept his daughter's coming out as transgender.
Jaya Kelly recently announced that he is female to male transgender and that he now goes by the name of Jay.
The 14-year-old made the announcement in a blog post via his Ask.fm account, explaining that he was born biologically female but has identified as male since the age of "6 or 7".
It was at the age of 11, when he started looking up boys changing to girls and girls changing to boys that "im like wow, theres people who feel EXACTLY the way i feel and then i knew like that's what transgender is".
"I believe I am a boy and want surgery, and the medication to help me [be] who I was supposed to be," he wrote.
His mother and R Kelly's ex-wife, Andrea Kelly, has been supportive, he says, and refers to him as a boy.
"My mom was like, 'Baby, you know I love you if you were bi, gay, lesbian, you name it and I would still love you so much," said Jay.
"She was very proud of me, I was like, 'Thank you mom for accepting the fact that I'm transgender.'"
Jay says his older sister Joann has also told him she is "proud" of him and now refers to him as her "little brother".
"I love her for that, so you know it was great for me," he writes.
While mum and sis have been supportive, his R&B singer dad R Kelly appears to be finding the news harder to digest.
He broke his silence on Jay's announcement in an interview this week with Chicago radio station WCGI.
Asked about the announcement, he told the interviewer: "You don't really wanna open it up by saying my daughter is becoming my son. Because if that were true..."
When the interview interjected that it had been reported on blogs, the singer said: "Don't even give the blogs that kind of credit. You know what I'm saying? Real talk.
"Always believe what you see with your own eyes that is. Always believe what you see. That is the best way to go about this business.
"And I've heard a lot of things about a lot of people and it was never true. You gotta know there's a back story. There's a background. That's why you can't judge nobody."
He went on to say that his all his children are "lovely kids that I am in love with".
Jay suggested on his Ask.fm profile that he is not close to his dad and said that his dad "has not reached out" since his announcement.
He has seen a video of his dad's radio interview and commented that he already knows "he accepts me".
Asked by a user if his dad accepts it, Jay replies: "I don't know, he kind of did on the video."
He also reveals he hasn't yet had a girlfriend but does say that he went out with a boy and "absolutely hated it".
"I thought it would change how i felt inside but nope, it didn't. AT ALL," he wrote.
He adds that he would be "the happiest man on earth" if he got surgery but feels that at the moment he is "too young".
