What do you do when your child tells you that they are not the gender you have always thought they are? How do you tell your family and friends? How does the world take it? What sorts of new decisions do you have to make?
The following interviews are particularly personal for the parents I spoke to. In our current political environment, transgender children, their families, and their caregivers are being used as pawns in a game, with no recognition of the real children involved and the truly difficult decisions that parents have to make. It’s absolutely unconscionable that anyone would do this, and I can’t say that strongly enough. No matter what my own personal political opinion on an issue is, I want the people involved in making decisions to make those decisions based on the most informed and thoughtful counsel they can get. This is not happening in places where politicians are jockeying to go the furthest to punish children who are simply stating who they are and what they need. These politicians are causing direct and lasting harm to everyone involved.
When I started, I meant to create a very different podcast, but ended up just putting together two moms’ voices. They are having very different experiences with their children, and I don’t know if they even know each other. But I have cut their words into a conversation of sorts. I hope that listeners will come away from this conversation understanding the concerns, hope, and love for their children that all parents have. What they want for their children is no more and no less than what any loving parent wants.
Related:
- Article in Growing Up in Santa Cruz based on these and other interviews: GrowingUpSC.com
- Interviews with Santa Cruz teens about gender: GrowingUpSC.com
- The Santa Cruz TransFamilies Support Group offers support to parents: TransFamiliesCA.org
- The Diversity Center offers youth groups and information: DiversityCenter.org
- The Trevor Project offers trustworthy factual information and support for queer young people: TheTrevorProject.org
