Trans Teen and Family Narratives Project
On the one hand, significant gains have been made in creating supportive family and community environments where young people can explore and express their gender identity and sexuality. On the other hand, the experiences of trans and nonbinary youth have been weaponized by conservatives who are fanning the flames of the culture wars, as laws banning gender-affirming care and appropriate health services for trans and nonbinary youth have been proposed and passed in numerous red states. Within this divisive climate, the Trans Teen and Family Narratives (TTFN) Project has developed a resource for families to use as they explore how best to support their trans and nonbinary young people.
In 2019, with funding from the National Institutes of Health, Silence Speaks collaborated with the TTFN Project on an intensive in-person digital storytelling workshop with a group of trans and nonbinary youth from New England. Over the course of three days, we supported these participants in reflecting on their experiences of being rejected by some family members and warmly accepted by others; audio recording stories; and learning to edit them as short videos, using photos and video clips. The backdrop for the development of these stories was a qualitative research study carried out by the TTFN Project, which interviewed 96 family members from 33 families and developed an interactive online toolkit. The TTFN Conversation Toolkit aims to support families with trans and nonbinary youth in having conversations about gender identity. The project’s digital stories are embedded in the toolkit along with discussion guides. View selected examples below.
