This is a Book for Parents of Gay Kids


Book Description

Written in an accessible Q&A format, here, finally, is the go-to resource for parents hoping to understand and communicate with their gay child. Through their LGBTQ-oriented site, the authors are uniquely experienced to answer parents' many questions and share insight and guidance on both emotional and practical topics. Filled with real-life experiences from gay kids and parents, this is the book gay kids want their parents to read.




Coming Out, Coming Home


Book Description

The discovery that a child is lesbian or gay can send shockwaves through a family. A mother will question how she's raised her son; a father will worry that his daughter will experience discrimination. From the child's perspective, gay and lesbian youth fear their families will reject them and that they will lose financial and emotional support. All in all, learning a child is gay challenges long-held views about sexuality and relationships, and the resulting uncertainty can produce feelings of anger, resentment, and concern. Through a qualitative, multicultural study of sixty-five gay and lesbian children and their parents, Michael LaSala, a leading expert on this issue, outlines effective, practice-tested interventions for families in transition. His research reveals surprising outcomes, such as learning that a child is homosexual can improve familial relationships, including father-child relationships, even if a parent reacts strongly or negatively to the revelation. By confronting feelings of depression, anxiety, and grief head on, LaSala formulates the best approach for practitioners who hope to reestablish intimacy among family members and preserve family connections as well as individual autonomy well into the child's maturation. By restricting his study to parents and children of the same family, LaSala accurately captures the reciprocal effects of family interactions, identifying them as targets for effective treatment. Coming Out, Coming Home is also a valuable text for families, enabling adjustment through relatable scenarios and analyses.




Unconditional


Book Description

Parents of LGBT Children. Looking for LGBTQ books that offer guidance on providing loving support to your LGBT child? Parents of LGBT children guide: Unconditional: A Guide to Loving and Supporting Your LGBTQ Child"provides parents of a LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning) child with a framework for helping their LGBTQ child navigate through a world that isn’t always welcoming. Author Telaina Eriksen, a professor at Michigan State University and the mother of a gay daughter, explains what she and her husband have learned through experience, including how to: • Deal with gay children coming out • Confront bullying of gay children • Become an advocate for gay children • Build a support system in a gay family Gender and sexuality: Eriksen also covers the science on gender and sexuality and how to help a transgender child through the various stages of development. Throughout the book parents and kids who have been there, share their stories. She also directs gay family parents to various resources online to help them. LGBTQ parents will learn… • How to help their child navigate locker rooms, sleepovers, proms, etc. • When to involve the police or school administration when it comes to bullying • How to advocate for local, state and national policies that protect your child • Ways to educate well-meaning, but misguided extended family members • How to help start a Gay-Straight Alliance at your child’s school • Strategies for keeping your child talking after he or she comes out • Signs of unhealthy relationships • When to consider therapy for your child and/or your family • How to find an LGBTQ-friendly community (including inclusive churches)




Beyond Acceptance


Book Description

"Mom, Dad, I'm gay." When a parent hears these words, the initial shock is often followed by feelings ranging from anger and denial to fear and guilt. It's also the beginning of a difficult journey that, with understanding and emotional support, can lead to acceptance and beyond. Now fully revised and updated, Beyond Acceptance by co-authors Carolyn W. Griffin, Marian J. Wirth, and Arthur G. Wirth remains a ground-breaking book that provides parents the comfort and knowledge they need to accept the gay children and build stronger family relationships. Based on the experiences of other parents, this book lets them know they are not alone and helps them through the emotional stages leading to reconciliation with their children.




The Kids


Book Description

PAPERBACK ORIGINAL A stunning new photobook featuring more than fifty portraits of children brought up by gay parents in America, sixth in a groundbreaking series that looks at LGBTQ communities around the world Judges, academics, and activists keep wondering how children are impacted by having gay parents. Maybe it’s time to ask the kids. For the past four years, award-winning photographer Gabriela Herman, whose mother came out when Herman was in high school and was married in one of Massachusetts’ first legal same-sex unions, has been photographing and interviewing children and young adults with one or more parent who identify as lesbian, gay, trans, or queer. Building on images featured in a major article for the New York Times Sunday Review and The Guardian and working with the Colage organization, the only national organization focusing on children with LGBTQ parents, The Kids brings a vibrant energy and sensitivity to a wide range of experiences. Some of the children Herman photographed were adopted, some conceived by artificial insemination. Many are children of divorce. Some were raised in urban areas, other in the rural Midwest and all over the map. These parents and children juggled silence and solitude with a need to defend their families on the playground, at church, and at holiday gatherings. This is their story. The Kids was designed by Emerson, Wajdowicz Studios (EWS).




Now that You Know


Book Description

"One of the most important books about gay people yet published, Now that you Know is a challenging and enlightening guide for the 20 to 40 million parents in the United States who may be faced with the knowledge that a son or daughter is homosexual. It was written by two mothers of gay children and draws on dozens of candid interviews with gay men and women and their parents. The authors discuss the nature of homosexuality, its effect on the lives and careers of children, the prospects for gay relationships, and the troubling question of religion. They tell parents how to respond supportively to gay children and how to keep families together in a bond of understanding and affection. Finally, they describe the nationwide Parents of Gays groups, which encourage parents to share their experiences and learn to help one another."--Publisher's description.




My Child is Gay


Book Description

Each year a number of brave men and women will sit down and tell their parents that they are gay. By the time they tell their parents they will have lived with this knowledge for some time. It is often the parents who have only a split second to react. My Child is Gay is a compilation of letters written by parents who have a gay or lesbian child. The letters have been written to be shared - both to help parents cope with and come to term with their feelings, and for gay men and women who are contemplating sharing the truth. Few parents are accepting from the start and many feel perplexed. They are unsure where to turn to for help and how to deal with their feelings of grief and loss. Here the parents talk about how they dealt with the many emotions they experienced - anger, embarrassment, guilt and confusion. Together these letters reaffirm the regenerative power of love and allow those with first hand experience to outline the important steps on the road to understanding. My Child is Gay shows how ordinary families have found love and happiness again.




How it Feels to Have a Gay Or Lesbian Parent


Book Description

In their own words, children of different ages talk about how and when they learned of their gay or lesbian parent's sexual orientation, and the effect it has had on them.




Over the Shop


Book Description

In a beautifully detailed wordless picture book, a tumbledown building becomes home sweet home for a found family. A lonely little girl and her grandparent need to fill the run-down apartment in their building. But taking over the quarters above their store will mean major renovations for the new occupants, and none of the potential renters can envision the possibilities of the space—until one special couple shows up. With their ingenuity, the little girl’s big heart, and heaps of hard work, the desperate fixer-upper begins to change in lovely and surprising ways. In this bustling wordless picture book, JonArno Lawson’s touching story and Qin Leng’s gentle illustrations capture all angles of the building’s transformation, as well as the evolving perspectives of the girl and her grandparent. A warm and subtly nuanced tale, Over the Shop throws open the doors to what it means to accept people for who they are and to fill your home with love and joy.




This Is How It Always Is


Book Description

"This is Claude. He's five years old, the youngest of five brothers. He also loves peanut butter sandwiches. He also loves wearing a dress, and dreams of being a princess.When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl. Rosie and Penn want Claude to be whoever Claude wants to be. They're just not sure they're ready to share that with the world. Soon the entire family is keeping Claude's secret. Until one day it explodes."--