Lyndsay Brown - What Would Love Do?

2020, Australia, English, Lyndsay Brown,

Full title: "What Would Love Do?: Parenting a child through the first year of gender transition" by Lyndsay Brown.

"Lyndsay Brown’s journey as the parent of a transgender child started on 25 October 2017 at about eight-fifteen p.m. It was abrupt and shocking, with no prior contemplations or parental imaginings to pave the way. It was the birth of a daughter she had absolutely not anticipated even for a single moment in her life until then."

"Olivia was diagnosed with gender dysphoria, or the dissonance between the gender assigned at birth and her self-perceived gender identity. The image observed in a mirror did not match Olivia’s perceived concept of self. A powerful yearning to lead an authentic life requires courage because being transgender is an intensely difficult process. But trans children also demand realisation of the “right to be seen as equal, ordinary, normal and commonplace”. They are simply living life as ordinary teenagers progressing through puberty."

"Brown details her initial shock, lost parental expectations and fears imagined for her daughter as she struggled to adjust to a difficult and stigmatised life. The book describes school bullying and exhaustive hypervigilance in social settings if Olivia did not “pass” but was “clocked” as her birth gender. 

The book estimates that around 1.3 percent of high school children identify as gender diverse and up to 50 percent of trans teens attempt suicide. Trans parents must also live with a constant expectation that their child might fall apart. This book helpfully offers many practical tips and insights for navigating these and other challenges."

Available via Amazon

and lsj.com.au