A support group for parents of children who identify as trans or non binary has started tweeting at @BayswaterSG and has a small website at www.bayswatersupport.org.uk . Most of us have children with complex additional needs, both boys and girls, mostly adolescents but with some at the ends of their teens and beyond.
We’re cautious about affirmation ie when school and doctors take the desired identity at face value rather than be curious to explore what it might mean for a young person to seek such a dramatic change. We love our kids and we are not denying that transition can be good for some - even maybe for our own children once they have grown up fully. What little support we see now, though, often seems unrealistic and almost as if its designed to overlook other problems, always centring the gender issue.
Currently we have published some general ‘tips’ distilled from within the group and want to develop more focused advice, on school, ASD, CAMHS etc. We’d love to be in touch with any other parents who might feel like they are confronting this complicated parenting issue on their own. We don’t pretend to have all the answers but collectively we reckon we have about thirty years’ experience of this between us & we just wanted to share what we have.