A new campaign from PFLAG and 3M aims to show how “Family support makes a transformative difference” in the lives of LGBTQ people. Watch their video showing the real-life stories of parents visibly supporting their LGBTQ children.
I know the hashtag is ambiguous—when I first heard it, I thought it was for a campaign about LGBTQ parents coming out for the first time to their children. Still, PFLAG has a good point, in that a parent of any sexual orientation or gender identity has a “coming out” process when they speak openly about a child who is LGBTQ (just as a child of LGBTQ parents has a “coming out” process in speaking about their family). As one of the dads in the video says, “The key for supporting your child is actually coming out yourself.”
Even those of us who are LGBTQ ourselves may hesitate to speak openly about having LGBTQ children because we fear lending credence to the myth that LGBTQ parents are much more inclined to have LGBTQ kids. We’re not—but that doesn’t mean none of us do.
Kudos to PFLAG for their years of work in helping parents of all types be out and proud about their LGBTQ children. May we all learn from the similarities and differences in each of our coming out journeys.
Visit parentscomingout.com to read more messages from real parents to their children, and share your own stories (or have your parents share them) via #ParentsComingOut on social media.
