Five Ways HRC’s Parents for Transgender Equality Council Shows Up for LGBTQ Youth

by HRC Staff

This Parents’ Day, we celebrate our Parents for Transgender Equality Council and the diverse ways that they consistently support and protect LGBTQ young people.

Post submitted by former HRC Digital Media Manager Helen Parshall

This Parents’ Day, we celebrate our Parents for Transgender Equality Council and the diverse ways that they consistently support and protect LGBTQ young people.

This coalition of inspiring parents of transgender youth from across the country is working for equality and fairness for transgender people, with the intention of connecting, mobilizing and amplifying many of the most powerful voices of love, inclusion and support for transgender equality.

Here are five of our favorite ways that these parents have led the way in fighting for the rights of LGBTQ young people:

1. Giving Us All the Feels with Viral Videos         

In 2016, HRC produced a video series featuring Moms and Dads for Transgender Equality. The videos put a face and name to the issues facing transgender children, creating a dialogue around how to better support and advocate for transgender youth and their families. The Moms for Transgender Equality series won a Shorty Social Good Award. Months after they were posted, the videos continue to receive comments, views, shares and likes.

2. Lobbying for Equality on Capitol Hill

 HRC’s Parents for Trans Equality have been on the front lines of the resistance, from the council’s first meeting in November 2016 and participation in HRC lobby days, to Sarah Watson's impassioned speech at the rally to stop the nomination of anti-equality Jeff Mateer.

3. Sharing Stories with HRC Members and Supporters Across the Country

Members of the council have lent their voices to support the launch of groundbreaking HRC publications, including the 2018 Healthcare Equality Index and the 2018 Youth LGBTQ Report, by sharing their own powerful experiences.

4. Drafting a Declaration of Transgender Rights

In response to the Trump-Pence administration’s continuous attacks on LGBTQ people, in November 2017 HRC’s Parents for Trans Equality Council drafted and collected signatures for a declaration of rights seeking protections for their children and all transgender people from discrimination, violence and harassment. More than 1,400 parents of trans and gender-expansive children from all 50 states and the District of Columbia signed the declaration -- an unprecedented show of support for transgender and gender expansive youth.

5. Delivering a Letter to Betsy DeVos urging the Department of Education to #ProtectTransKids

Members of the council drafted and collected more than 700 signatures from parents of trans and gender-expansive children on a letter to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos condemning her failure to protect transgender students. Families of trans kids traveled to the U.S. Department of Education to deliver the message and urge DeVos to recognize the “basic human and civil rights of transgender students.”