Extraordinary Happenings

Whew! A lot has happened in the last three weeks, to put it mildly.

Since posting about a little video of me from the Listen To Your Mother show and crossing my fingers that it would reach a couple hundred people with transgender or gender-nonconforming kids so they would know they aren’t alone, it’s actually been viewed a lot. A lot. More than I could have envisioned, and frankly, more than I could have planned for.

After receiving a bit of hate mail and frantically worrying if we had done enough to protect our daughter’s privacy, the good mail started rolling in. Thousands of personal messages from six continents are now saved in my Inbox. Some are from adults who have never felt safe enough to transition. Some are from parents who are glad to have short, pithy responses to those dreaded myths we all here. Some are from kids — young adults, really — who are in their teens and want their parents to listen to them and know that things will be okay.

In trying to answer each message with a personal reply, I’ve neglected the new blog here at Trans-Parenting. But I’m hoping that will be a good thing for all of us in the end. You see, I didn’t make this site to be a platform for me. I made it to be a resource for all of you…the kids who are questioning themselves and who need help communicating with their parents; the parents who need some reassurance that their kids can indeed know who they are and to trust the process of their discovery; and anyone else who wants to be an ally by sharing the info here with staff at their schools, at their pediatrician’s office, or with a child advocate in court.

So please take a look around the site and give me some feedback. What do you want to see that is missing? What questions do you have that aren’t addressed? What resource are you desperate to find but haven’t been able to get your hands on? I will dig for you. I will make calls. I will find the experts who can answer those questions.

Here are a few things that I am working on right now:

• A list of books about gender for young kids
• A list of books for teens, including some great fiction
• How to put together a “Safe Folder” to protect yourself and your child
• Sample letters to send to family and friends about your child’s transition
• A collection of videos from other families that help put a personal perspective on transgender kids
• A list of documentaries suitable for schools, churches, and other groups to view to better understand gender issues
• Specific information about how puberty blockers work and when their use is in order
• Medical information about what to expect with cross-sex hormone therapy in teens

Now you tell me…what else should we cover? I look forward to hearing your thoughts, questions and ideas! (And since this is a new site, please please please share it with everyone you know so that it can grow and become the resource I’m dreaming it can be!) Thank you all of your support.

Blessings,

Debi