Transition Stories
My 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 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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