Trans and Gender Diverse Young Adults Thoughts About Parenthood

We’ve seen important changes in the UK over the last 30 years in equal rights legislation although there’s much more to do in terms of transgender rights. Successive national social attitude surveys in the U.K. have revealed a considerable shift in public attitudes toward a generally more tolerant view of personal relationships including same-gender relationships (A. Park, Bryson, Clery, Curtice & Phillips, 2013 British Social Attitudes Surveys). In addition more routes to parenthood are opening up. But LGBTQ parents and their children can still encounter hostility and ignorance, and in some places and contexts it is more difficult than in others.

Fiona Tasker and Jorge Gato have set up focus groups with gender diverse and trans people without children to discuss the topic of parenthood, in collaboration with Gendered Intelligence (http://genderedintelligence.co.uk) a Community Interest Company whose object is to engage increase awareness of gender diversity and to support young trans and gender diverse people across the UK.  In these focus groups we were interested in what trans and gender diverse people without children think about having, or not having, children in the future and whether they think society’s views on parenthood are changing. This project is ongoing so please contact Fiona Tasker (f.tasker@bbk.ac.uk) for further information.