After parents and educators, my survey-takers most frequently listed friends' parents, along with grandparents, as the top two groups that would benefit from a resource like this website. This ranking isn't surprising since young people may often go over to their friends' homes and, therefore, interact with parents.
There are countless queer or trans young people with a super supportive friend whose parents are not nearly as affirming. This situation requires the young people to make a choice:
- The friends only go over to the queer or trans young person's home,
- They spend time together at both homes, and/or
- They only spend time away from both of their homes.
And if the queer or trans young person has their own unsupportive parents? Ugh. Two homes with clueless/hateful adults — or more, depending on how many of their friends have unsupportive parents.
Dynamics like these make educating friends' parents a paramount concern.
So if one of your kids has a friend who's queer, trans, or questioning their identity, what do you?
See these articles on the importance of fostering queer and trans joy, hope, and strengths. You have the ability to help in this way and so many others.
What other ideas do you have? Please drop me a line to let me know.
