Dare to dream of a church and a world transformed by the bold celebration of transgender and gender-diverse children. The debate around transgender children rages, with some Christians being the loudest voices against loving and supporting these young people. So, now more than ever, people of faith need to be grounded in God's call to love and affirm young people in who God created them to be. Raising Kids beyond the Binary bypasses the sound bites to give readers a vivid picture of who transgender, non-binary, and gender-expansive young people are and what they need to thrive. Drawing on the author's experience as a mother walking with and learning from her own transgender child, as well as working with hundreds of families across the country doing the same, this book helps parents navigate the emotional, spiritual, and logistical landscape of raising a gender-diverse child. Grounded in the unequivocal truth of God's deep love and limitless creativity, this book compels readers to move past "all are welcome" to loving and celebrating transgender and gender-diverse youth in the brilliance of their uniqueness, the wisdom of their self-awareness, and the joy of their authenticity. Faith leaders and adults who work with youth will also find the book a helpful tool for gaining insight and building safer and more welcoming congregations for these children. Rich with personal stories, research, and practical steps, this book dares to dream of a church and a world transformed by the bold and joyful acceptance and celebration of transgender and gender-diverse children and youth. These children need us, and the world needs them.

- How the inclusion of trans people in our communities of faith has the potential to broaden our understanding - Written by a priest and parent of a trans person - Discussion/journaling questions included

"This is Claude. He's five years old, the youngest of five brothers. He also loves peanut butter sandwiches. He also loves wearing a dress, and dreams of being a princess.When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl. Rosie and Penn want Claude to be whoever Claude wants to be. They're just not sure they're ready to share that with the world. Soon the entire family is keeping Claude's secret. Until one day it explodes."--

A groundbreaking guide to caring for children who live outside binary gender boxes We are only beginning to understand gender. Is it inborn or learned? Can it be chosen—or even changed? Does it have to be one or the other? These questions may seem abstract—but for parents whose children live outside of gender “norms,” they are very real. No two children who bend the “rules” of gender do so in quite the same way. Felicia threw away her frilly dresses at age three. Sam hid his interest in dolls and “girl things” until high school—when he finally confided his desire to become Sammi. And seven-year-old Maggie, who sports a boys’ basketball uniform and a long blond braid, identifies as “a boy in the front, and a girl in the back.” But all gender-nonconforming children have one thing in common—they need support to thrive in a society that still subscribes to a binary system of gender. Dr. Diane Ehrensaft has worked with children like Felicia, Sam, and Maggie for over 30 years. In Gender Born, Gender Made, she offers parents, clinicians, and educators guidance on both the philosophical dilemmas and the practical, daily concerns of working with children who don’t fit a “typical” gender mold. She debunks outmoded approaches to gender nonconformity that may actually do children harm. And she offers a new framework for helping each child become his or her own unique, most gender-authentic person.

First-hand accounts of how parents support their transgender children There is a new generation of parents and families who are identifying, supporting, and raising transgender children. Their efforts—practical, political, intellectual—are part of a shift that has arisen in support of gender-nonconforming children, across schools, advocacy organizations, medical and mental health clinics, and especially online. In Trans-Affirmative Parenting, Elizabeth Rahilly interviews parents of transgender and gender-nonconforming kids, as well as medical doctors, endocrinologists, mental health practitioners, advocates, and educators, to present their fascinating stories. Rahilly explores how parents come to terms with conventional ideas about gender, sexuality, identity, and the body, including parents’ complex deliberations about nonbinary possibilities and medical interventions for their kids. Throughout these processes, Rahilly shows that parents’ decisions and understandings often counter contemporary LGBTQ advocacy positions, which have worked to resist overly medicalized and/or gender-normative views and expectations. For example, contrary to mounting societal emphasis on gender-fluid and nonbinary identities—and despite parents’ efforts to imagine options “beyond” the proverbial gender binary—Rahilly found that her interviewees’ children were often strongly binary-identified as boys or girls. In turn, for many of the parents, gender-expansive parenting ended up looking surprisingly “gender-stereotypical,” per the children’s own assertions and expressions. In addition, many parents came to see transgender experience as strictly a biomedical condition, echoing their children’s own understandings of their bodies and their identities. While these perspectives may counter recent LGBTQ advocacy efforts, from a child-directed point of view, this is what supporting transgender children often looks like. Ultimately, Rahilly examines how parents can best advocate for transgender awareness while not reiterating the kinds of gendered and embodied expectations that has led to transgender stigma in the first place. In an era that is increasingly transgender-aware, the book offers provocative new insights into transgender children and the parents who raise them.

"What did you have? A boy or a girl?" Kyl and Brent imagined it would be years before their child would identify with a gender. Until then... As a first-time parent, Kyl Myers had one aspect dialed in from the start: not being beholden to the boy-girl binary, disparities, or stereotypes from the day a child is born. With no wish to eliminate gender but rather gender discrimination, Kyl and her husband, Brent, ventured off on a parenting path less traveled. Raising a confident, compassionate, and self-aware person was all that mattered. In this illuminating memoir, Kyl delivers a liberating portrait of a family's choice to dismantle the long-accepted and often-harmful social construct of what it means to be assigned a gender from birth. As a sociologist, Kyl explores the science of gender and sex and the adulthood gender inequities that start in childhood. As a loving parent, Kyl shares the joy of watching an amazing child named Zoomer develop their own agency to grow happily and healthily toward their own gender identity and expression. Candid and surprising, Raising Them is an inspiration to parents and to anyone open to understanding the limitless possibilities of being yourself.

LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FINALIST 'Essential reading' - THE INDEPENDENT 'Vital and insightful' - OWL FISHER What does it mean to be non-binary in the 21st Century? Our gender identity is impacted by our personal histories; the cultures, communities and countries we are born into; and the places we go and the people we meet. But the representation of contemporary non-binary identities has been limited, until now. Pushing the narrative around non-binary identities further than ever before, this powerful collection of essays represents the breadth of non-binary lives, across the boundaries of race, class, age, sexuality, faith and more. Leading non-binary people share stories of their intersecting lives; how it feels to be non-binary and neurodiverse, the challenges of being a non-binary pregnant person, what it means to be non-binary within the Quaker community, the joy of reaching gender euphoria. This thought-provoking anthology shows that there is no right or wrong way to be non-binary.

"Raising the Transgender Child offers much-needed answers to all the questions parents and other adults ask about raising and caring for transgender and gender diverse children"--

A beautifully illustrated collection of portraits showcasing over fifty trans, non-binary and intersex trailblazers. This book is a celebration of the extraordinary lives of these individuals who fought for equality and change.

Our culture has strict rules for acceptable behavior for men and women. But what about kids who fall outside the boundaries of prescribed roles? This book is a guide for parents in the practical application of Gender Neutral Parenting - a parenting style based on respect for a child's self-identity and providing latitude in exploring their own version of gender and gender expressions. In Gender Neutral Parenting you'll learn the Five Skills Essential for GNP: Skill #1: Become Aware of Genderization Skill #2: Become Aware of Your Gender Bias Skill #3: Create a Gender Diverse Environment Skill #4: Start a Dialog About Gender Skill #5: Dealing With Family and Friends and Dispelling Myths With practical examples and real world scenarios, this book will give you the strong foundation needed to implement GNP in your home and with your children. You'll learn about gender stereotypes for boys and girls and how to counteract them as a parent. Stereotypes covered include; Girl Genderization Stereotypes: Stereotype: Girls Are More Social and Less Physical Stereotype: Girls Are Princesses Stereotype: Girls Are Boy Crazy, Sexual Temptresses Stereotype: Girls Are Pure and Virginal Boy Genderization Stereotypes: Stereotype: Boys Are Physically Active But Behind Socially and Verbally Stereotype: Boys Are Emotionally Stunted Stereotype: Boys Are Slaves To Their Sex Drive Stereotype: Boys Will Be Boys You'll also learn how to deal with family and friends (and strangers) that don't understand your parenting approach. I'll answer questions like; "Are you trying to make her androgynous?" "Won't that make him gay?" "Why are you so anti-feminine/anti-masculine?" "Do you think she's trans*?" "You're raising a person not a social experiment." "She's going to hate you and need therapy." Or, "He'll be bullied." "I can't believe you let her play with Barbies! Don't you even care about her future?" This book is for any parent, grandparent, or childcare teacher that wants a guide to raising kids without the strict limitations of gender roles and who wants to engage kids in conversations that will make them savvy media consumers and critical problem solvers around issues of gender and equality.