Lesbian singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge recently shared a story about when her eldest son, Beckett, came out as straight when he was just 11 years old.

“When he was about 11, he came to me, he goes, ‘Mom, I’m sorry, but I think I’m straight.’ I tried to tell him it was a phase, but, you know,” Etheridge joked while speaking on the April 8 episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show.

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The comment came amid Etheridge’s discussion of “Tomboy,” a song from her recently released album Rise, a seemingly autobiographical song with lyrics centered on a short-haired, kickball-playing girl who “wanted to be James Dean” and preferred G.I. Joe military toys to Barbie dolls.

The song’s lyrics state: “There was no part of me that ever felt wrong / No part that felt I wasn’t right where I belonged / Ain’t nothing weak when little girls are strong / Tomboy, tomboy.”

“I wanted to take that term ‘tomboy’ back because I didn’t know if it was derogatory when I was a kid,” Etheridge said.

“It doesn’t make you feel hot,” Clarkson joked. “It doesn’t make you feel sexy, like, ‘She’s such a tomboy.'” Clarkson then made a comically macho posture and said in a deep tomboy voice, “‘Yes, I am!'”

“There’s nothing weak about when little girls are strong,” Etheridge added.

Clarkson then mentioned that her own son is 10 years old and once told her that someone said that he couldn’t paint his nails. Clarkson said she appreciates that male celebrities like Harry Styles are “owning whatever the hell they want to do.” Styles, a singer, has been praised for wearing loud, flashy, and “feminine” fashions.

“I was like, ‘You can do whatever you want,'” Clarkson added. “So there still is that influence of like, ‘What is boy? What is girl?’ sometimes. And it’s annoying, especially when you’re a parent.”

“The kids come in all who they are anyway,” Etheridge said, “and then just watching them find that is really…”

Etheridge had her eldest son Beckett with her now ex-partner, Tammy Lynn Michaels. Beckett died from causes related to opioid addiction on May 13, 2020 — he was just 21 years old.

In July 2024, Etheridge spoke with People magazine about her docuseries Melissa Etheridge: I’m Not Broken. During the discussion, she shared why she refuses to “get stuck in the cycle of grief” about her son’s death.

“I learned to understand more about eternity. And how we are eternal beings, and how I truly believe in that,” Etheridge said. “Otherwise, it would be too hard to even take any death. And to really believe in that is comfort. And to understand that we’re spiritual beings who are having a human experience, and we come and go.”

“And to love myself enough not to get stuck in a cycle of grief and blame, and shame, and stuff that comes along, especially with anyone who’s addicted,” she added, noting that sometimes she feels a “comforting” energy that she attributes to her late son.

“There’ll be times I’ll be doing something, all of a sudden I’ll find myself just thinking about him, and I’m like, ‘Oh.’ His energy comes into that thought form. And, ‘Oh there it is. Bam,'” she said.

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