Nancy Mullen
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A thought for my many, many ally friends on this wonderful first Friday of Pride month. I’m seeing a lot of posts saying “I’m your mom now”, and “I’m your dad now.” I believe these are prompted by nothing but the purest and kindest of intentions and the sentiment behind them is beautiful.
And.
The relationship that many of our LGBTQ+ youth have with their parents is so powerful and so complicated, I wonder if (in our wish to make them feel loved) we are dismissive of that powerful, complicated nature.
None of us –however hard we try–will ever be able to replace someone’s parent. The trauma of losing parental attention, respect, nurturance, and support is much deeper than we can address in a meme. Those of you who have LGBT kids or who have taken in homeless LGBT kids know how delicate and complex this issue is. Family rejection, let alone from a parent, can become a years-long process to heal. Some of my friends in their 50s and 60s are still working it through.
Please DO bring the topic to the forefront. Please DO publicly and privately support LGBTQ+ kids, especially those whose families have cast them out or made them feel less than. And please also think before you meme. If you love them, respect them, want to support them, would fight for them…say that. If they truly have lost a parent, even temporarily, allow them the space to feel and heal that. A meme will never do that loss justice.
Carry on, warriors. We’ve got some Pride month work to do!
5Christina Berry, Nadine Franklin and 3 others2 CommentsLikeCommentShare