DISAVOWAL

Ex-Ku Klux Klan Scion Comes Out as Transgender in New Memoir: Report

R Derek Black said his time at the New College of Florida made him realize his true identity.

The Ku Klux Klan scion R Derek Black, once a vocal supporter for the racist organization, revealed in a memoir obtained by the Daily Mail on Wednesday that they’ve come out as transgender and are fiercely against the organization their father, Grand Wizard Don Black, infamously once led. In the memoir, The Klansman’s Son: My Journey from White Nationalism to Antiracism, Black said they realized their true identity while attending the New College of Florida in the 2010s—well before the tiny, formerly left-leaning university underwent a conservative takeover led by Gov. Ron DeSantis last year. Black, now 35, used to pose alongside their dad and Nazi imagery and even contributed to the neo-Nazi website Stormfront.org, which was run by the family. Black’s perception changed once he arrived at New College, however, and their previous ideology did a full 180 after they dated—and later married—a Jewish woman. Black formally renounced his White Nationalism in 2013 and is now voicing support for trans people “whose rights are now under vicious, loud attack in Florida.”