Went to my first Pride on Saturday

[the_rotten1]

"You took the kids to a Pride festival?"

"Just a little one."

"What?"

"There wasn't anything indecent."

"Okay."

Comments

[helliongoddess]

Yeah, the UUC where I live is very welcoming to the GLBT community - my daughter-in-law goes once in a while, and she and my daughter have participated in a couple of programs that have been done by the church on GLBT issues.

The issue with your mom is definitely one the therapist can help with, give the kids some coping skills for dealing with the dissonance they see there. One thing that is part of just growing up is learning that people, including within families, have differences, and they don't always get along, but - hopefully - they can always manage to try to be civilized to each other. Do you think at some point you might ever be able to get your mom in for a chat with your therapist? It would give her a chance to ask some questions she might not have asked you, vent, etc. Or a PFLAG meeting - that would help her a lot, but it would probably be harder to get her to that. I would offer to talk to her (I'm a PFLAG resource person here) but I'd have a hard time relating to her religious objections. I can never understand how Christians have turned it into a religion of exclusion... that bothers me. But I'd try, if you thought it would help. Or if I can help in any way you can think of, let me know. I know my daughter and D-I-L would say the same thing, if they can help you in any way. They do so much work with trans people, including a lot of F-M, in fact they have a ton of F-M friends, even go to drag king shows (my daughter adores those!) If you think of any way we can help, just ask. I will message you my email.

[the_rotten1]

Yeah, I think the kids will be fine. They're been through worse things than disagreeing with relatives. Honestly, I'm more worried about my mother. She's the one having the hardest time. She's hurting me and distancing herself from her grandchildren over my identity. I want to help her understand, but anything and everything I say about it seems to make thing worse for her. Keeping quiet about it is all I can do right now.

I don't think it would be a good idea to take her to see my therapist though. First of all, she probably thinks that the therapist is trying to "cure" me so that I "won't want to be a man anymore". I'm not sure how she'd handle it if she knew I was asking for a letter so I could start HRT. She might try to talk the therapist out of giving it to me, or try to ban me from starting T while I'm still living in her house.

Secondly, I did reveal a lot about my past to the therapist during our first visit. She knows how my mother dumped all her problems on me and neglected me as a teen. I'm not sure it would be a good idea to introduce them right now, if at all.