Straight Parent, Gay Kid

PRIDE Flags – More Than Decoration

                                                         Created by Daniel Quasar                        June is the month associated with PRIDE.  It’s a month of readings, events, Stonewall photography, exhibits, and, of course, marches and parades.  Banners and flags unfurled everywhere, bringing the LGBTQ community together yet highlighting the differences among different groups.  But what do the colors actually signify in the different flags?This…

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GAY PRIDE: WHY WE CELEBRATE, Guest Post by Bryce Thompson

June is traditionally GAY PRIDE Month.  Today, Bryce Thompson, M.A., LMFT, author of the forthcoming book, Are You Man Enough?  A Call to Action Guide for Straight Fathers of a Gay Son, is writing a guest blog post on Gay Pride: Why We Celebrate! PRIDE counters the pain, marginalization, and attempted “eraser” of nature’s diversity!…

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Are Your Kids Mentally Healthy?

                                   May is Mental Health Awareness Month.  According to American Psychological Association News, March 8, 2019, “more U.S. adolescents and young adults in the late 2010’s vs. mid 2000’s experienced serious psychological distress, major depression or suicidal thoughts and more attempted suicide.” Anxiety and depression are on the rise and suicide is now the second…

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What is Acceptance?

                                                What Constitutes Acceptance? If a parent doesn’t want to march in a Gay Pride Parade, is he not accepting of his LGBT child? If a parent doesn’t write an amicus brief to the Supreme Court for the three cases being considered for the expansion of the Civil Rights Act of 1967…

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Beyond “The Talk”

                         Yesterday was National Youth HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.  The purpose of this annual day (April 10) is to support youth HIV prevention by promoting school-based health education.   However, I’m not “a day late and a dollar short,” because I believe I’m on the money about the importance of parents educating their child about safe…

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Coming Out as Transgender

                                    Today is the annual event of International Transgender Day of Visibility.  Its purpose is to celebrate transgender people and raise awareness of worldwide discrimination faced by transgender people.  Prior to 2009, the only well-known transgender-centered holiday was the Transgender Day of Remembrance which mourned the murders of transgender people.  It was a sad…

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“You’re Bi What?”

                                               Most parents and society-at-large don’t understand bisexuality.  Sexuality is fluid, according to Freud.  For a person having a bisexual orientation, the orientation is not chosen even though the sex of the partner may be.  According to social psychologist Justin Lehmiller, Ph.D.,  author of The Psychology of Human Sexuality,  being bisexual doesn’t necessarily mean…

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A Discriminating Vote by Methodists

                       This week, the delegates of the United Methodist Church gathered to take a vote on whether to reinforce a ban on gay marriage.  This second largest Protestant Church, with 12 million members world-wide voted 53-47 to discriminate against the LGBT community. With nearly 7 million Methodists in the United States, the younger parishioners…

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It’s Not About You!

                                    It’s Not About You! In an OP-ED New York Times column entitled “It’s Not a Teenage Fad. It’s Life,” 1/09/19, author Jennifer Finney Boylan remarks that when her daughter came out, she felt as if “this person was now going to be different.  It made Jennifer think, at first, that something precious was being…

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Supreme Court Bans Transgenders in the Military

On Tuesday, January 22, 2018, The Supreme Court voted 5-4 to impose a ban on Transgendered adults in the military.  But it’s more complicated.  Previously, lower courts had placed injunctions on the ban, but on the 22nd, some of these injunctions were put on hold so the ban can’t go into effect yet. Nefarious History…

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