Raising Ryland is the tender story of the Whittington family’s four-year journey to teach their deaf child to speak, only to discover that what Ryland had wanted to communicate the most was that he was a boy. Whittington’s narrative takes us on a roller-coaster journey as they learn what they thought was a tomboy phase… Continue reading Review: Raising Ryland by Hillary Whittington
It plays like a movie reel in my head. One minute I’m on the third floor of our elementary school in the middle of a reading lesson with fourth graders. The next, I’m in the passenger seat of my husband’s speeding car, on the way to the High School. We’d already lost the time he… Continue reading When You Learn Your Child is Suicidal
Raising My Rainbow is a charming story of what it is like to raise a gender non-conforming child in a world that sees only male and female genders. Lori Duron’s youngest child takes an interest in Barbie’s at the age of two, and by the time he is three years old, his world revolves around… Continue reading Review: Raising My Rainbow by Lori Duron
For most of my oldest child’s life, I understood them to be gay. At one point in time, during their college years, they made a FaceBook post about an informal name change. In it, they also referenced gender-neutral pronouns. That summer, I was buried under mountains of college work. We were also preparing to send… Continue reading How to Listen Better To What Your Child is Saying
Sarah S. Brannen’s Uncle Bobby’s Wedding is a heart-warming and inspiring story about family and the power of love. This preschool/early elementary grade picture book features Chloe and her favorite Uncle Bobby. When Uncle Bobby announces he’s going to marry his boyfriend, Jamie, everyone is happy for him except Chloe. It’s not Jamie that Chloe… Continue reading Review: Uncle Bobby’s Wedding by Sarah S. Brannen
Erica Silverman’s Jack (Not Jackie) is a charming and essential story about change and acceptance from the perspective of a child. This early elementary grade picture book (suitable for pre-schoolers) features Susan and her family. From a young age, her little brother Jack begins expressing himself and shows his family he is not in fact… Continue reading Review: Jack (Not Jackie) by Erica Silverman
It wasn’t until I became the parent of a transgender child, and had to do the hard work of letting go of the expectations I held of who I thought they were, and what I thought their life would be like, that I realized I had expectations for them to begin with. It was an… Continue reading Letting Go of Who I Thought My Child Was
Recently, I participated in a workshop about sharing hard stories. I regularly write and share about when my youngest came out as transgender, so I thought it would be more of a learning experience than anything else. I mentioned that I wrote about being the parent of a transgender child, and learned that the focus… Continue reading Sharing Childhood Stories of Your Transgender Child
One of the first things I did as a newly pregnant mama was to think about the names I wanted to consider for my baby. I was pacing back and forth in the bathroom of my parent’s condo, waiting to see if the First Response test would show one line or two. When you are… Continue reading When You Struggle With Your Child’s Name
The day I learned my son was transgender, I felt unprepared to respond to the information I had been given. That morning, I spent a long time staring out the windows of our downstairs. I had an endless loop of questions running through my mind, but no answers. What does this mean? Did other people… Continue reading What I Wish Others Knew When My Son Came Out
