It's NOT That Difficult

I am in Cincinnati, Ohio. Today, on the heels of yesterday's mega coverage of  Prez Obama coming out against gay/transgender conversion therapy-the local tragic(local) Leelah Alcorn suicide story was featured. Then today, yet another story of a teen trans suicide went public.
It occurred to me (again) we are missing something here (other than the obvious). Maybe missing the forest for the trees. If I was writing my own version of "Parenting a Transgender Child for Dummies", here are my basics:

1. You face a Very REAL 41% chance of your child committing suicide.  COUNT on it.
2. YOUR Child will be bullied- COUNT on it. Remember too-bullying is a multi generational institution. Others kids learn it.
3. Monitor your child's social media. Bully's live like cock roaches on social media and often are just as intelligent.
4. Religion may help YOU-but not your child. Jesus is not walking down the hall at school with your child. 
5. Each case/child is different but you and your child are NOT alone-increasingly so.
6. Remember the "P" words. This is not a phase but then again your child can grow into the many different layers of growth. If protected and nurtured.
7. Understand you are raising a very unique and special child.
8. There is NO luck to this. It's what you make of it.
9. The chance of you mourning a child you never really knew is VERY real. 
10. You CAN help.

Rest assured I am not qualified to write a book such as this. On the other hand if we are ever going to stop this insanity, we are going to have to go to the parents with grass roots efforts. - and make the parents of bully's criminally liable.  

Katie's Transgender Show

Tuesday afternoon in my part of the world, one of the more impressive television shows on transgender youth issues I have ever seen aired on one of my local television affiliates.

Katie Couric hosted a show billed as "Raising a Transgender Child".
Two impressive points were the fact the show was not presented as a sensationalized Anderson Cooper ratings booster and took a serious look at the lives of young transgender children female and male. All of them pounded home the very important point to the casual observer that gender and sexuality were different.
Above I have added a picture from the show including the youngest Coy (six) to icon Renee Richards (78) and yes the other two are transgender also.

Of course the subject of "puberty blockers" was prominently mentioned and experts were plentiful to discuss them. I would guess the more jaded of the public and the transphobic folks would have wanted a few naysayers on the show. In my mind a debate on the subject would have destroyed the continuity of the show.

Of course, I'm sure more than a couple trans nazi's will find something wrong in this show but I'm sure soon you will be able to judge it for yourself on line somewhere. Follow the link above for more!

Trans Kids Update

Way back in the year of the force 2007, Barbara Walters and ABC produced a show which focused on the lives of transgender children such as Jazz (above).
From Transgriot:

"This Friday Barbara will visit the trans kids and their families that were interviewed for that 2007 show and find out what is transpiring in their lives five years later. One of those adorable trans kids was Jazz, and she'll be part of this broadcast. It's slated to be televised November 2 from 10-11 PM EDT on your local ABC station. It is sweeps month, so count on the trans themed programming to flood the airwaves for a few weeks."

Monica Roberts (Transgriot) has the videos from the previous shows here.