Media
GLAAD: All Access with Debi Jackson
While in Portland at the Time to Thrive Conference, I ran across the staff from GLAAD. They have a video series called “GLAAD: All Access” which features interviews with newsmakers, hit-makers, and people making a difference. For some reason, they think I fit that bill! So I sat down with them for a few minutes to talk about when I first noticed my four-year-old wanted to identify as a girl, how my husband and I educated ourselves about the word “transgender,” and offered some advice for other parents of transgender children.
Read MoreInterview: Kansas City’s CAMP Magazine
I was honored by being interviewed in Kansas City’s LGBT magazine, Camp, and was absolutely flabbergasted when they said they wanted me to be on the cover as well. The interview is called “The Camp 10” and is ten questions long. Here are the first two: 1. Like many of our readers, I first learned of you from the powerful video recorded of you speaking about your transgender daughter in May 2014 at the Listen to Your Mother live reading show at Kansas City’s Unity Temple on the Plaza (Listen to Your Mother). How have things changed in your life since that video went viral?A better question is almost what hasn’t changed. Before, I had a very small group...
Read MoreMy Transgender Child: The Backstory
I’ve been invited to speak to a wide variety of groups in the last couple of months. I thought my Listen To Your Mother speech was a good summation of everything I could say about our daughter’s transition and my family’s journey. I’m usually a short and to-the-point kind of person, so six minutes of talking naturally should cover everything, right? Well, rather than give the same speech over and over again, I’ve started sifting through memories to pull out more stories that illustrate our daughter’s struggles and distress. I’ve also started to think about how it has changed our individual and familial perspectives on concepts...
Read MoreWhy Are Your Kids Your Pride & Joy?
Why are your kids your Pride & Joy? That’s the question we will be asking as part of a new fundraising campaign with The Trevor Project, to be launched in the next couple of months.Stemming from the 2 horrific stories last week of an 8yo boy who was tortured and murdered by his mother for playing with dolls and a 17yo trans boy who committed suicide, we want to promote pride in ALL of our kids, whether they fall into the LGBTQ spectrum or not. I’m excited to be working with Liz Dyer, owner of the “Serendipitydodah for Moms” Facebook support group for moms of LGBTQ kids on this project. Trans-Parenting.com and the Serendipitydodah group are...
Read MoreTransitioning as a Mormon
Religion and acceptance (or lack thereof) from churches is a big area of controversy for transgender people. The lack of acceptance from church groups and large denominations can lead some to turn away from religion altogether. But others hold onto their faith, and even hope that they or their children will be accepted someday. One such family is featured in a short documentary which has just won the 2014 Utah Short Film of the Year Award. Utah? Yes, Utah. The home of the LDS Church. Eri Hayward and her family are Mormon. Her story is “Transmormon”. The “good parenting” part of this story is in a quote from Eri’s dad near the end of the...
Read MoreIt’s Time to Speak Out
Two years after our daughter’s transition, my husband and I were growing increasingly frustrated at the continued myths about transgender kids and their families. One day we were talking about possibly starting to speak out more. The next day, we were called and asked to participate in a local newspaper story. When it came out, I wrote a blog post on a friend’s site adding in a few things that had been cut from the article. Then a friend suggested I send that article in to the Listen To Your Mother Show to further share our story. The rest, as they say, is history. I was selected to be in the cast of the 2014 Listen To Your Mother Show in Kansas City. My...
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