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By Mikayla Seaman Connolly My husband Brandon and I premiered on episode two of the HBO docu-series “We’re Here” where top drag entertainers Bob the Drag Queen, Eureka O’Hara and Shangela Laquifa Wadley traveled to small towns across the country, listening to the stories of local LGBTQ folks and ultimately involving them in an end of show drag performance. Our episode featured Twin Falls, Idaho, where Brandon and I shared our story of meeting in our high school drum corps and

By Em English My mother was measuring, cutting, and sewing the clothes that my brothers and sisters would wear for the upcoming school year. I was always amazed that she could take simple tan tissue paper covered in seemingly random lines, pin them to colorful fabric, carefully cut and trim them and – voila – we ended up with a shirt. It felt like magic to my four-and-a-half-year-old brain. Today she was making clothes for my sisters. The red, black, and pinstriped yellow pla

It is incredibly difficult to put into words the emotional uproar that my family has been through as my daughter has transitioned into the beautiful woman she is today. The road has been long, with many speed bumps and it is far from over, but every mile has been worth it for my daughter’s happiness. Although most people think our journey started in 2015, in reality, it started long before that. My husband and I could not have been more elated by the birth of our healthy, bab

Last May, I had a conversation with my 30 year old child (via text) that I never expected. It happened on May 9th, 2018, at 4:37pm. My academically gifted, funny, musically talented, people-pleasing, socially adept offspring told me she was transgender. As in, she had a female brain in a physically male body that didn’t match. And she didn’t want to live that way anymore; she wanted to transition to her true self. I wish I could say that I fully embraced her plan during that

By Rachel Ellis When our oldest started intermediate school (sixth and seventh grade in our area), our once happy kid started to struggle. Failed classes, turning friends away when they came to play, and an unusual amount of time spent alone in his room doing nothing, left us worried. We encouraged more time spent on developing interests and skills, talked with the doctor, tried medications, and even bought a dog as a companion. When none of those efforts helped, we restructu

Eight years ago, in May of 2011, my middle child publicly came out as transgender. During the couple of months prior to that life-changing Facebook post my son, Grayson, my husband, David, and I had been telling family and close friends the news. Together we had made a list of the people we wanted to tell personally, and divided up the task of telling between the three of us. The people I was most worried about telling were my parents. They were 85 years old, very conservativ

By Jaime Jara When I was young and vast opportunities lay before me, I aspired to have my life somehow impact the world for good. I wasn’t overly ambitious; I didn’t expect to win a Nobel Peace Prize. I just knew I wanted to make a difference. Fast forward some years after the birth of my third child. In my early thirties, I felt myself to be a mature and well-seasoned parent, thinking I could handle anything motherhood threw my way. I had already endured many sleepless night

By Shauna Jones I lost 45 pounds during my pregnancy with Beckett, my oldest child. I had a pregnancy condition called hyperemesis gravidarum that caused me to vomit the entire pregnancy. There were times when I was so dehydrated, I couldn’t cry actual tears. During my first trimester, when I was vomiting absolutely everything I ate or drank, feeling like I might die, my sweet mom gave me an early baby present that she’d picked up on a trip to New York City. It was too soon

Rachel shares her experience when her daughter came out as transgender and how she and her family found support and understanding amidst conflicts with their faith. #Transgender

I gave birth to three sons; a set of twins, now 30, and a 25-year-old. They are my everything and I adore them. When my twins were 13 years old, they shared with my husband and me that they felt something different than others. They felt attraction for boys. For us this was difficult to believe because they were playful with girls and had often commented about liking one girl or another. Their attraction to boys scared me. I asked them if they wanted help from a psychologist,

I knew something was up with my gender identity at about five years of age. The first time I knowingly interacted with another transgender person in any meaningful context was nearly forty years later. This might seem less surprising if you consider that only an estimated 0.36% of the adult population in my home state of Utah identified as trans as late as 2016*, and that coming out as transgender even just a few years earlier than that was considered a sort of social death s