A new illustrated resource for parents of transgender children, Storm Clouds and Rainbows – The Journey of Parenting a Transgender Child, has been published this week by the Rainbow Support Collective, a collaboration between rainbow-led support organisations across Aotearoa.

This resource offers insights from a parent perspective on how best to support a transgender child. It is based on international research and interviews with parents in Aotearoa of different social and cultural backgrounds, who were asked to reflect on their experience of raising a transgender child, exploring both the challenges they face and the joys they encounter.

Key messages from the research include that:

• Parents experience a range of emotions when their child comes out

• The struggles parents face derive not from a child’s gender but from the reactions of others

• Family and friends can help or hinder parents’ support of their child

• Parents learn to listen to their child and follow their lead

• A child’s transgender identity is something to celebrate

The resource was researched, written and illustrated by Dr Julia de Bres, a senior lecturer at Massey University and parent of a transgender child, supported by transgender researcher Ia Morrison-Young. It was produced in partnership with the Rainbow Support Collective, and was generously supported by The Tindall Foundation.

‘I got into this research because I could not connect my own experience of raising my child with the moral panic around transgender children and their parents that I saw in the media’, says Julia de Bres. ‘I wanted to tell a different story, one more true to how I was seeing parents like myself navigate this journey. This is the first research on this topic in Aotearoa, and I’m excited that we now have evidence of how parents support their transgender children right here at home.’

To access the resource, visit the Be There website and scroll to the base of the page to download:

https://www.be-there.nz

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