Dragons

To all of my fellow Mama Dragons a bit about me and my family.

My story more or less starts in early 2018 when my child came out as trans, but there is quite a bit of background you need to know to put that into perspective. The first thing you need to know so that things are not confusing is that I am a transgender woman. But I have only been out for about a year, more on that later.

When my wife and I got married we were very religious. Unfortunately, our religion told us all things LGBT were wrong. We just accepted that like so many other things our leaders taught us as a fact and didn’t give it much thought.

As our family grew, both older and in size (we have ten kids), we taught our kids the same beliefs. But we were, and still are, a free-spirited homeschool family. We have always focused on teaching our kids how to learn, not overloading them with facts. And we have always taught them to question.

As the years rolled by my wife and I started questioning what we had been taught about LGBT and other things. I don’t recall ever openly discussing our changes in beliefs with our kids. When with others of our faith, I would mostly present the status quo that was expected. But with closer friends and around family, I think our shift in perspective came out a bit in our comments and attitude.

I don’t know if it was the shift in our attitude or just out of desperation, but one day in early 2018 one of my kids came out to my wife as transgender. While we were still very religious, we have always put our kids first. With our more accepting perspective on LGBT, there was no question we were going to support our child. This is where my story begins.

I barely had a clue what transgender was at the time but when my wife told me our child had come out as transgender, it was the answer to the prayer I had never prayed. I always knew I was different. But at a very early age, I shoved all of that deep down inside of me. I knew what society expected of me, and I knew there was a part of me I could not share with anyone, not even myself, not then.

Shortly after discussing our trans child and how we both were absolutely going to love and accept them, I explained to my wife that I too was trans. I wasn’t sure in what way but I somehow knew it was the answer to who that child was that I locked in the closet many many years ago.

Over the next year, several of our other kids came out. Of the twelve people in our family, half of us identify as LGBT. And in November of 2019 I came out at work as a transgender woman.

So why am I here? One might think with so many queer family members we have it all figured out. One thing God has shown me over and over again is that people do not come out of cookie cutters. Each one is a very unique creation. I so love the rainbow as within it’s infinite colors it shows God’s infinite creativity in His children.

Counting myself we have three transgender people in the family, but each of us is quite different. We each have a different journey with unique obstacles. I don’t totally understand myself much less anyone else. I am here to learn, help where I can, and above all spread God’s love and acceptance to the queer community.

PS if you want to know more about me and my journey J616.org is my coming out site that has my story and blog.