My child is trans, help!

[jacksmom53]

I apologize for this post if any find it offensive or ignorant. I was referred here by my sister, who told me that livejournal had many good communities for this kinds of issues

Comments

[agent_alpo]

First of all, I have to applaud you for being so supportive of your son, and I wish you all the best as you work through this situation. Supportive parents will be the foundation that helps Jack through his transition if he pursues it fully.

While anecdotes from people who have been through the situation are always good to hear, the best place to start is with a gender therapist. This site has a list of gender therapists in each state. (I took the liberty of looking at your userinfo for your location. Your state has several therapists listed including one in your city.) A therapist will help guide you and Jack through the transition process and will also help Jack determine if this is in fact the course he wants in his life.

As far as school goes, it's hard to say. My best recommendation would be to look into the high school that Jack will be attending and find out their policies with regard to transgender students, if they even have any. As far as bathrooms go, they may have a unisex bathroom available that Jack could use. You would want to get permission from school officials for this, to avoid misunderstandings in case the unisex bathroom is only meant for certain students like handicapped students or the like. While I know transition is expensive and adding the tuition of a private school to that would be worse, if the public high school looks like it will be a detrimental environment for Jack, you might look into private schools in your area. Although that might still be fruitless, as private schools have a tendency to be religion based and a lot of religions would not look kindly on Jack's transition.

So anyway, that's my thoughts. Best of luck to your family.

[agent_alpo]

Also, depending on your insurance's policies, the gender therapist may actually be covered. My partner is MTF and her therapist was covered by her insurance when she had insurance. She actually was able to get some of her hormones covered, too, as her GP is gay and transgender friendly. You may broach the subject with Jack's doctor, and consider seeing a different doctor depending on the reaction you get from the current one. If you see a gender therapist, he or she may be able to recommend a good GP for Jack that will be cooperative with the transition process.

[jacksmom53]

Thanks for the tip. I'll get to investigating the policy we receive through my husbands job and what they offer for transgendered people. I don't know much about the high school he's slated to go to, it's not the same school I attended since we lived in a neighboring city (Phoenix). This area isn't the most conversative place in AZ, but AZ as a general rule is pretty conservative.

I really wish there were LGBT high schools right now. I don't think that segreation is the answer, but it would nice to have options that were outwardly friendly and sensitive to queer students.

[tko_ak]

*waves from NAU*

Maricopa County is pretty conservative, at least for metro areas, but Tempe being a college town should help. ASU may even have resources you could use.