The guide will help parents have positive and open conversations with their LGBTQIA children
BY YASMIN VINCE, IMAGES BY DREAMSTIME AND JUST LIKE US
The LGBTQIA young person’s charity Just Like Us has launched a guide to help families be better allies, including advice on what to do if your child comes out. The guide has been supported by several celebrities, including Sandi Toksvig, Lauren Rowles, Jessie Ware and Jonathan Bailey.
Called the LGBT+ Guide For Parents: How All Families Can Be More Inclusive And Supportive, the guide is set to be released today (24 February) in response to a rise in anti-LGBTQIA language among young children and the increasingly damaging direction the public discourse around LGBTQIA lives is taking.
The guide centres the voices of LGBTQIA young people and was created following a consultation with more than 100 parents and their LGBTQIA children. It focuses on having positive and open conversations about LGBTQIA identities and showing that difference is something to be celebrated. These topics include unlearning stereotypes, encouraging schools to be inclusive and supporting your child when they come out.
Sandi Toksvig has spoken about how being a parent and grandparent herself, as well as being part of the LGBTQIA community, she thinks all families should read the guide. “It’s so vital that talking about LGBT+ people doesn’t become a taboo topic at home, and this guide helps lead the way.”
Three-time Paralympic gold medallist and Just Like Us patron Lauren Rowles said: “As an LGBT+ disabled parent myself, this guide is invaluable and shows that LGBT+ people come from all walks of life. All parents can and should lead the way in teaching their children to be allies to the LGBT+ community and this guide shows you how.”
Other celebrities have also supported the guide, including Wicked’s Jonathan Bailey, who said there should be “no shame in parents not understanding” how to support their child, “only shame in parents who don’t endeavour to protect, nurture, and celebrate LGBTQ+ children”. Similarly, singer-songwriter Jessie Ware said she wants her children to grow up in a world “where they feel safe, loved, accepted for exactly who they are” and that being an ally starts at home.
Several young people have spoken about how this guide may help them. Rohan, a trans and bisexual young man, said: “This is the guide I wish had existed when I came out to my mum.”
According to a report conducted by Just Like Us, though the majority of straight parents consider themselves to be supportive, a third of LGBTQIA young people are not confident their parents will accept them and almost half (46%) are estranged from at least one family member.
Just Like Us’ Chief Executive, Laura Mackay, said: “No young person should have to fear that they will be rejected by their family for being who they are. Yet, sadly, we know this is the reality for many LGBT+ young people. A lack of family acceptance can have a range of negative effects on LGBT+ young people, from a lack of family closeness and lower self-esteem, to estrangement and even homelessness.
“Every parent and carer has an important role to play in supporting our children to be happy, kind and optimistic about the future. This guide aims to help all parents, whether or not their children are LGBT+, to create an environment where difference is celebrated and inclusion is prioritised.”
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