Parenting My Transgender Child: From Loss to Acceptance

In Brief

Parenting My Transgender Child: From Loss to Acceptance

Justine Larson

Background Child and adolescent psychologist, Justine Larson, MD, writes about her child Neo, who, at age 11, informed her that he was a boy and not a girl, as assigned at birth.

What This Study Found Despite Dr. Larson’s training, she struggled to accept her child’s decision and had to learn how to best support Neo. She writes about how she and her husband had to navigate the adjustments to Neo’s new pronoun, name change, transition at school, and informing friends and family about the changes.

Implications

• Larson writes, “Seeing Neo’s sadness and despondency when he was not accepted sparked me to educate myself about medical options for transgender individuals and other ways to be gender affirming. Neo taught me to challenge societal dichotomies and taught me about how physicians, in particular, can support families with gender creative children.”