Elizabeth Rahilly: Trans-Affirmative Parenting: Raising Kids Across the Gender Spectrum

Excerpt

Rahilly posits in, Trans-Affirming Parenting, that the most successful trans-affirming paradigm embodies a child-centered approach. She attributes the eve of this paradigm in part to societal shifts away from the authoritarian styles typical of the Industrial Era. Modern parents tend to regard children as projects to cultivate and attempt to provide them with opportunities, whether it be extracurricular or college, to grow. This shift allowed for a child-centered parenting approach to take hold. Rahilly conducted a study in which she interviewed over fifty parents from 2009–11 and again in 2012–2013. Using her empirical data and key sociological theories, she explores the logistics of how parents recognize identity and facilitate social transitions while navigating nonbinary possibilities and concerns for a “normal” childhood. She notes that, despite distinct patterns, each child’s development of displaying gender nonconformance, is unique—there is no “prototypical profile” of a transgender child. Therefore, the argument that frames her data is that the most successful approach to compassionately and productively parenting trans-children is through present-minded, child-centered practices which affirm the child. …