One of the ways that we show our support for trans people is by raising our voices as Other Mothers and explicitly naming our beliefs and our commitment. These testimonials are just the beginning of our activism — and we hope you’ll join us.
I remember the day when my teenage son announced to the family that he was trans. It happened during the pandemic. He had been quiet and somewhat withdrawn for much of that school year, his senior year of high school. He often took long walks alone in the afternoons after his online classes had finished for the day. I worried a bit about what might be going on with him, checking in from time to time to make sure he was okay, and he always told me he was fine. One evening during our family dinner, seemingly out of the blue, he announced to us that he was trans. I was shocked because it had never ever occurred to me that he felt like he is a she. And then my heart sank because I feared for the safety of my trans
ANONYMOUS
daughter.
For the past several years, I went through phases of grief, denial and acceptance. I grieved for the son that I thought I had, and the future I had imagined for him in his adult life. I went through a state of denial, thinking that this might just be a phase. If she had gone through her whole childhood never questioning herself as a boy, how could it be that she questions it now? After much thinking and reading, attending therapy and parent support group sessions, and watching her physically transition from a young man to a young woman, I have come to accept my new, and always, daughter. As confusing as that time had been, there was one thing I always knew for certain…I love my child no matter what, and I will fiercely protect her right to live as a queer trans woman, without fear, prejudice or harm.
Durham, NC