Meaning Matters: Framing Trans Identity in the Context of Family Relationships

Losing the Child They Thought They Had: Therapeutic Suggestions for an Ambiguous Loss Perspective with Parents of a Transgender Child

“…The way parents and other family members make sense of their loved one's transgender identity will not only impact their relationship with their loved one (Zamboni, 2006;Norwood, 2013a), but also can impact their relationship with others (Norwood, 2013a), the level of stress they experience (Norwood, 2013b;Zamboni, 2006), the intensity of grief and loss that a parent experiences (Norwood, 2013a), how effectively parents cope (Wren, 2002), and their overall emotional health (Norwood, 2013a). In Norwood's (2013a) study, family members who were able to overcome their sense of grief did so only after time and intentional efforts to make sense of their loss.…”

“…Therapists can support clients in examining, deconstructing, and reframing their cultural and familial discourses around gender and transgender identities (Norwood, 2013b). Therapists can support clients in examining, deconstructing, and reframing their cultural and familial discourses around gender and transgender identities (Norwood, 2013b).…”

“…Therapists can support clients in examining, deconstructing, and reframing their cultural and familial discourses around gender and transgender identities (Norwood, 2013b). Dialogical (Norwood, 2013b) and narrative approaches (Adler, Harmeling, & Walder-Biesanz, 2013;Baerger & McAdams, 1999) might be particularly useful in supporting parents' and family members' meaning-making processes. Dialogical (Norwood, 2013b) and narrative approaches (Adler, Harmeling, & Walder-Biesanz, 2013;Baerger & McAdams, 1999) might be particularly useful in supporting parents' and family members' meaning-making processes.…”

Putting Families of Origin into the Queer Picture: Introducing This Special Issue

“…This is the direction undertaken by recent scholarship on queer relationships and family configurations such as polyamorous families (Pallotta-Chiarolli, 2010a,b;Pallotta-Chiarolli, Haydon, & Hunter, 2013) and mixed-orientation families (Pallotta-Chiarolli, 2014, in press). From this perspective we can also trace an increasing attention paid to bisexual and transgender young people coming out, as we have presented in this issue in several articles, who are often the marginalized or silenced B and T in GLBT research (Costello, 1997;Heath, 2010;Norwood, 2013; see also Goldberg & Allen, 2013); as well as to migrant, ethnic, and racial minority families of origin, also evident in this issue (see also Pallotta-Chiarolli, 2005a,c;Beckett, Mohummadally, & Pallotta-Chiarolli, 2014).…”

“…These address Norwood's (2013) concern regarding how disclosure of trans identities has been shown to bring about change in family relationships, yet little is known about how trans identities function as family stressors. The meanings families assigned to trans identity, the complex processes by which they arrived at those meanings, and how meanings fostered or hindered support for their trans family members require much more examination.…”