Accepting transgender children can mean life or death, says leading activist
The trans woman said she was beaten and harassed in men’s prisons for over a year. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
A leading US transgender activist has spoken out about the importance of embracing a child when they are transgender, stating that a family’s acceptance can mean life or death.
Sarah McBride, who is the press secretary of the Human Rights Campaign, is encouraging families to accept their child when they come out, in fear of the dire roster of mental health problems transgender people can experience when they are not cared for.
“When I think of families accepting and embracing their transgender children,” she told Vox.
“I remember when a mom of a transgender daughter said: ‘When my child came out, I was faced with a decision — whether I wanted a happy daughter or a dead son.’”
(JP Yim/Getty Images)
McBride also spoke about President Trump’s transgender military ban, and stated it was not done under consultation.
“This president’s discriminatory and dangerous ban on transgender people serving in the military was entirely impulsive and erratic,” she said.
“This was not done, contrary to his assertions, in consultation with his generals. It was not done in consultation with the Pentagon.
“It was done based on a whim, by a commander in chief who has governed with bigotry from the start,” she added.
Reese spoke at 2016 Democratic National Convention, she made history, becoming the first transgender person to speak at a national convention.
McBride has penned a memoir named Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality, which is all about her battle for trans equality.
It also tells the heartbreaking tale of her and her late husband and trans man, Andy Cray, who died just days after their wedding after suffering from terminal cancer.
