LGBT News The pros and cons of transgender children in the public eye

RainDreamer · Jun 28, 2014

Should parents let transgender children march in Pride? - CNN.com

Coming out publicly as a family with young gender nonconforming children is not easy, and it's not for everyone, said author Lori Duron, who shares her family's experiences with a gender nonconforming son on her blog, Raising my Rainbow.
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Ultimately, she and her husband decided it was worth the risk. To alleviate privacy concerns, she uses pseudonyms on her site and does not show her children's faces.
"We decided it was important for us to be advocates and for people to see that we are a normal family," she said.

She has learned to look beyond the hate mail and focus on the growing community she has helped build. Besides, the benefits of having a happy son who feels comfortable in his skin far outweigh negativity from strangers and Internet trolls.

"There's something empowering about owning it and saying this is who I am, this is who my kid is, and I'm not going to hide him. I'm going to celebrate him."
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"The highest degree of acceptance is celebration, not that I just tolerate or accept you, but that I celebrate and embrace you," Malpas said.
"There is value in saying it publicly. It's saying to your child I will go out and I will publicly show the world that I really celebrate you and I really love who you are and I'm not ashamed," he said.
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"We were surprised that she was the one spreading the word," he said. "But, as I see it, that's who she is and I'm glad to think she fully accepts what she's going through."
People tend to underestimate children's ability to understand and talk about their gender identity, Olson said. Young children can tell if they're different, but fewer challenge the pressure to conform to society's gender standards.
Parental support helps them find the words -- and courage -- to express how they feel.
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"You can suppress and oppress your child's authentic gender so you don't have to worry about what strangers think, but then you will have a very anxious child who will be at a high risk for very negative outcomes," she said.
"We should help children learn resiliency and to be confident and proud of who they are," she said.
Hatred, hostility, even violence are all real risks whenever you take to the streets for an unpopular cause, she said.
But, she said, history has shown that the willingness of some to take those risks "moves the world forward."
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Inspiring article. But as always, comments always hurt to read...

LGBT News The pros and cons of transgender children in the public eye

RainDreamer Regular Member

RainDreamer
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