Casey French
This week, we watched an excerpt from Transgender Parenting which consisted of a series of interviews by different parents. Each parent discussed the difficulties of raising a child in our society. Our concept of "family" is defined as one man and one woman, but transgender parents challenge the social norm. What makes us male or female is determined solely on our reproductive organs at birth. All of our traits, behaviors, and attitudes are shaped around this critical factor. The roles of the family institution has been ingrained by the premise of biology and parent identity. What it means to be a mother or a father is interpreted by a distinct set of characteristics. For example, in the documentary, one transgender parent was contemplating what she considers herself to be once the baby is born. She questioned why she had to justify herself between the two roles.
Does this institution have to be like this? Of course not. The purpose of this institution is to provide children of future generations the same amount of care and affection as any other family unit. I believe that it is working, but it is faced with many obstacles. When the family unit separate, it creates a strain on parenting relationships for transgender people, especially if the child lives with the other parent. Another obstacle is revealing their new gender identity to their children, which could have a significant impact on how a child interprets gender transformation. No family is perfect, but if the intention is to raise a child, transgender parenting serves no threat to the structured family institution.
In this interview, a woman shares her experiences with her father who transitioned into a transgender woman while she was in middle school. Her father Trisha found it difficult to come out to his children for fear that exposing his new gender identity might negatively impact the family unit.
What Sharon Shattuck says at roughly 1:25, in reference to the early 90's and trans 'gender-ness', was that "we didn't have any terminology back then." While this may not necessarily be true it made think of how the acceptance of trans-gender people could very easily increase rapidly as our generation fully matures and the previous generation becomes "less-in-command" in terms of policy-making and moral norms. Ideas of gender roles that made be ingrained in our grandparents and parents were in a state of change as we grew up; thus we are more likely to be willing to accept new types of gender roles--this may include trans gender people and there gender roles as well. I wonder at what age/time Trisha would have chosen to share the gender transformation to Sharon, had there been no "force of hand."
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