LGBTQ+ Support: Building Assets
Affirm Their Identity
Showing your acceptance and support for your child’s identity (as they see it) is essential to their well-being. Your affirmation can help reduce an LGBTQ+ teen’s likelihood of substance use and improve their mental health.
A few ways to do this:
Take an active interest and role in their life and be an open ear if they want to talk
Help them find affinity groups or other activities to connect them to the community
Connect them to mental healthcare, gender-affirming care, and substance use treatment as needed
Handling with Care: A New Toolkit from Outright Vermont
We know you want to provide an affirming, supportive environment for your kids to thrive and have happy, healthy lives. But it is not always easy to know how, especially if you have a trans, queer, or questioning youth who may be experiencing things that feel very different from your own experience of growing up. Lack of information, personal discomfort, fears about safety for our children and other social pressures may even cause us to hesitate engaging with our children on these topics. Lucky for us, our wonderful partners at Outright Vermont developed a new toolkit by and for LGTBQ+ youth and parents and caregivers of LGTBQ+ youth to make it easier.
Handling With Care: A Toolkit for Parents and Caregivers of LGBTQ+ Youth offers tools to promote a culture of care in the home and community, a change we know is necessary. According to the 2021 Vermont Youth Risk Behavior Survey (which assesses risk and resilience factors of young people) LGBTQ+ youth face higher rates of bullying, are more likely to feel sad or hopeless, and feel less valued in their communities than their cisgender heterosexual peers. They are targeted and devalued by politicians, social media, and broader society, facing a daily deluge of antagonism and hateful messaging. This can contribute to poor health outcomes and increased risk factors in queer and trans youth, including self-harm and suicide.
This LGBTQ+ Youth Support Memo, which we created with Outright Vermont, highlights data points like those to the right for Burlington youth, describes the importance of intentional support to help reduce risk factors like substance misuse. We share tips and resources we like. This toolkit from Outright Vermont is a great new one that we will be adding to our list!
The toolkit shares ways to connect with your young people, to help them develop a positive self-image, and empower them to embrace their authentic selves. It provides examples of how to affirm and provide safety at home for your youth, such as “using correct names and pronouns” and “seeking out age appropriate LGBTQ+/gender inclusive programs and spaces for your youth to grow community and connection”. Most of the powerful positive messages and tips inside are from LGBTQ+ youth and their caregivers. This is also a great starting place to help you think about how to create a support system for yourself as well.
Outright Vermont Groups
Trans Parent Group is a welcoming and supportive community, where a mental health professional facilitates conversations to help caregivers provide support for young people
Gender Creative Kids is a monthly meetup on the second Sunday, for youth 12 and under and their families and adult caregivers to build connections.
To learn more about these groups or other resources for parents, caregiver and families, please reach out to amelia@outrightvt.org. Amelia is Outright’s Family Engagement Manager and they help families strengthen their bonds, find their place, and get connected to resources.
Resources for Families
LOCAL RESOURCES
Outright Vermont – Building hope, equity, and power with LGBTQ+ youth since 1989! Youth, their families and caregivers, and youth-serving professionals can receive supportive services, advocacy, skill-building, and resources, both virtually and in-person.
NATIONAL RESOURCES FOR FAMILIES
The Parents Guide to Supporting LGBTQIA+ Kids at Parents.com – this great website has “tools, articles, tips, and real-life stories to help you take action and create a more inclusive community for all children.”
Partnership to End Addiction has compiled a set of resources - for parents and families to serve as a guide to affirming and protecting their LGBTQ+ loved ones and to finding help if needed.
LGBTQ Family Acceptance – resources for both LGBTQ youth and families to help parents and caregivers access accurate information about their children’s sexual orientation and gender identity and for youth and caregivers to find supportive resources that validate diverse identities.
GenderSpectrum – Resources for families and youth-serving professionals about gender and sexual identity, and ways to support LGBTQ+ youth.
The Trevor Project – Suicide prevention and 24/7 hotline, chat line, and text services. Robust national surveys of LGBTQ+ youth mental health for further research and information.
RESOURCES FOR ORGANIZATIONAL WORK
National SOGIE Center – a centralized site for accessing resources on providing culturally responsive care to children, youth, young adults with diverse SOGIE, and their families across these systems.
Family Acceptance Project – Peer-reviewed research and resources to support family acceptance for LGBTQ+ youth. Downloadable resources available including, videos, posters, practice guides, policy models, and more.
GenderSpectrum – Resources for families and youth-serving professionals about gender and sexual identity, and ways to support LGBTQ+ youth.
Advocates for Youth – partners with organizations as well as young people and their adult allies to champion youth rights to bodily autonomy and improve policies, programs and systems to secure sexual health and equity for all youth.
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