Lived Experiences of Parents With Transgender and Gender Expansive Children

Parents of transgender and gender expansive (TGE) children can be recognized as a marginalized community often not represented or visible in the context of Westernized society. They experience significant challenges that impact their job as primary caregivers and burden their ability to raise healthy and happy TGE people. This research, guided by Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis methodology and Queer theory, aimed to discern parents of TGE children’s subjective and collective experience raising a TGE child in New Mexico, understand how they experience a support group each participant has attended at least one time, and recognize the significance of these experiences for participating parents, who were all encountering similar phenomenon. Findings identified in this research included three superordinate themes: a) Impact of living in conventional society, b) Loss, and c) Advocacy and education as change agents, and recommendations from these results are offered to inform counselors, counselor educators, and future research in counseling on using inclusive practices with this community. Furthermore, there is hope the results will be utilized to create systemic change that is affirming toward parents who are supporting and affirming the TGE children.