Michaela Jaé Rodriguez is looking forward to taking the next step in her relationship with her boyfriend, Stephen Gimigliano.
“We talked about kids,” the actress, 33, exclusively told Us Weekly at Los Angeles Magazine’s Pride Issue party at 1 Hotel West Hollywood earlier this month, where she and her fellow cover star Adam Lambert were celebrated. “We’re still trying to figure that one out, not because we don’t want them. But in the environment that we’re in, we’re still always trying to wonder, like, ‘How is our kid gonna grow up in a time [like today]?’”
Rodriguez said that although she can see the two of them “planning out life together and getting married,” she told Us that she’s hesitant to jump into parenthood during a “weird [and] scary time.” She explained: “I want them badly. He wants them badly, but we don’t want them to be ridiculed because of me being a trans woman in the world. And in the state and climate that we’re in, I always worry about that.”
She continued: “I don’t want my child being subjected to anything, ‘cause no matter how much people will not see me as a mama bear, my mama bear instincts will kick in and it won’t be about me. It’ll be about my child. And I don’t know if I’m ready to deal with the thought of what my child can deal with simply because of who I am.”
But before any kids enter the picture, Rodriguez clarified to Us that she and Gimigliano must first walk down the aisle. “Marriage, we’ll jump that hurdle first,” she shared. “And then we’ll think about children.”
Rodriguez began dating Gimigliano in 2019 and took their relationship public by gushing about him in a since-deleted Valentine’s Day Instagram tribute.
Calling Gimigliano her “center,” she added: “He keeps my core together. I am an artsy-fartsy kind of girl, you know, I am outlandish with my art. I am free with my art. And he is the more centered and calm and collected [one]. And I think it’s a great kind of juxtaposition to my Capricorn. He’s the Pisces. Really, I love him and I’m so happy he’s in my life to center me.”
She went on to note that her relationship with Gimigliano feels “very safe,” noting, “I really appreciate that he lets me also be me. And that’s the one thing I think any woman wants, is to be able to be free within herself and still know that her man is there to support her in everything that she does.”
With reporting by Andrea Simpson
