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Why Do LGBT Children Come Out?

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A child’s relationship with their parents is often a source of great love and support, and the hardships of coming out as a part of the LGBT community can either strain or strengthen this relationship. The LGBT community consists of non-heterosexual individuals who experience some level of same-sex attraction, along with transgender individuals who identify with a gender different from the one they were assigned at birth (Broad 400). In this paper, I will attempt to describe the ideal and reality of parental love, and explore how this love changes when an LGBT child comes out. Then, I will explore the impact of race and ethnicity, and the specific identity of the child on parental love. I will be using Sternberg’s triangular theory of love …show more content…
The survey received 20 responses from LGBT children between the ages of 16 and 22, and received 11 responses from parents. It asked questions about whether coming out had improved or worsened the relationship between parent and child, and collected demographic data such as race and ethnicity, and what part of the LGBT community the children identified with. Respondents were also asked to describe their specific concerns and issues before and after coming out. It should be noted that the sample size for this survey was quite small, and all of the respondents were American, 65% of whom were white, leading to some sampling …show more content…
According to the survey, only 29% of transgender children and 17% of parents of transgender children reported that coming out improved their relationship, as compared to 83% and 79% of cisgender children and parents of cisgender children respectively. This difference can be explained by analyzing the different needs of these identities. According to Kristen Benson, when a cisgender individual comes out as non-heterosexual, their primary goal is acceptance by their family. However, transgender individuals, along with acceptance, also often desire to receive help with medical transition, and expect parents to change their behaviors drastically by using a different name and set of pronouns when referring to them. Once medical transition begins, transgender individuals are also effectively forced to come out to anyone else they knew before transitioning, and parents, if they choose to be supportive, have to defend their child against criticism from within and outside the family (Benson 18-20). Hence, supporting a transgender child requires a large amount of commitment, effort, and resources, which parents are less likely to provide, especially if they don’t understand the experience of being transgender. When transgender children do not receive acceptance, they are less likely to trust their parents, and may feel a loss of commitment to the parent-child relationship as they

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