Episode 122: Gender Affirmation Can Be Life and Death

The LGBTQIA community has made some tremendous strides in the 21st century. Not only are gay people able to legally marry in the U.S. and many other Western nations, but transgender and nonbinary people have become increasingly visible and accepted among a growing swath of the public. Guides to proper pronoun usage have become increasingly commonplace, while transgender people also model forms of resilience and community-building that we all can learn from. But despite the progress, LGBTQIA people still face violence, discrimination and other threats to their well-being. For transgender and nonbinary people, there are troubling signs that the current climate is turning back toward repression and worse. Texas, with its lack of legal protections and a stigmatizing political climate, currently falls in the bottom quarter of rankings for support and acceptance of its nearly one million LGBTQIA youth and adults. To make matters worse, a wave of discriminatory legislation currently threatens the civil liberties and protections of LGBTQIA residents in the state. In this episode of the podcast, Dr. Stephen Russell, an expert on adolescent development and chair of the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences in the College of Natural Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin, takes us through the challenging terrain of gender identity and sexuality, and what these mean for parent-adolescent relationships. Related links: Episode 82: Gender Identity and Well-being: Toss the Rulebook https://hogg.utexas.edu/podcast-gender-identity-and-well-being Texas Must Support an Inclusive Child Welfare System https://news.utexas.edu/2020/01/23/texas-must-support-an-inclusive-child-welfare-system/ Against North Carolina’s HB2 Law: Mental Health and Discrimination Cannot Co-Exist https://hogg.utexas.edu/north-carolinas-hb2-law-mental-health-discrimination-cannot-co-exist-3