When your child comes out to you as trans, there’s a lot that goes through your mind. Parenting is a tough job at the best of times, but add your child’s gender dysphoria and the social and cultural expectations and attitudes on top of that, and parenting changes a gear very quickly.
Yes, we need to protect trans kids, but in doing that we also need to support their parents. What are they adjusting to and trying to navigate?
This week I’m chatting with Jennifer Killpac about parenting a trans child. Jennifer talks openly about what it’s been like for her family and the types of issues they’ve faced together. In discussing her experiences, she also offers valuable insights that will help other parents support their trans children. And for allies, she gives lots of great ideas about how to be more affirming towards trans people.
Jennifer Killpac is a wife and mother of three very unique kids. She is raising her family while running a business in the Middle East and is passionate about social justice issues, travel and helping facilitate safe spaces where people from different cultures can grow in understanding of one another.
Resources
Becoming Nicole by Amy Ellis Nutt – Book
Trans Mission: My Quest to a Beard by Alex Bertie – Book
Transition: The Story of How I Became a Man by Chaz Bono – Book
Odyessy Teen Camp – Summer Camp in Massachusetts, USA
The Gender Unicorn – graphic that explains the concepts of identity, expression, sex & attraction
Follow Cath at Drawn to a Story
Episode information
Music by Grant McLachlan
