At the beginning of this month, President Trump made an inflammatory proclamation regarding National Child Abuse Prevention Month.

No one would argue with preventing child abuse. However, Trump's only example of child abuse in the proclamation was “the sinister threat of gender ideology."

Well, that stings.

Affirming your child's gender identity is absolutely not child abuse.

Regarding affirming trans kids, the American Academy of Pediatrics stated, "All children deserve love, acceptance, and care. Parents should be commended, not punished, for accepting their children for who they are."

Support from parents and caregivers is crucial for the well-being of transgender and nonbinary youth, providing a solid foundation for their development and health (Trevor Project, 2024).

Conversely, research demonstrates that lower acceptance from primary caregivers and siblings and higher indifference from secondary caregivers are significantly related to negative psychosocial outcomes (e.g., depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, internalizing problems, externalizing problems) in transgender youth.

So not only is active affirmation crucial for our trans kids, simple indifference or passive neutrality (not even outwardly hostile) can be harmful.

This concept is on my mind because a bill will be heard in the Texas House Human Services Committee on Tuesday that attempts to exclude a parent/caregiver's refusal to "affirm the child's expressed sexual orientation or gender identity" from the definition of child abuse.

This opens the doors for parental rejection or indifference toward their trans kids to be "okay" and could have implications for child custody cases.

I'm hoping to make it up to Austin on Tuesday to testify against this bill. Wish me luck.

⭐️ Thank you to our sponsor! ⭐️

Mandy Giles​
Founder, Parents of Trans Youth​

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