In this week’s edition of Where Parents Talk with Lianne Castelino on 105.9 The Region, Nova Scotia moms Cynthia Sweeney and BriAnna Simons describe each of their family’s experience with a trans child, including how they found out about their children’s gender identity, where they turned for help and what inspired them to come together and write a storybook on the topic, called, The Pink Balloon.
Cynthia Sweeney
Mom of 3
Diversity, Inclusion and Equity Educator
Author, The Pink Balloon
Founder, SimplyGoodForm
“Fear, because I didn’t understand. I think my by background knowledge was associated to something like drag, you know, drag queen dresses. I’d seen Priscilla Queen of the Desert, I just thought, it’s more about presenting.
I didn’t realize that it was something internal. So I was very, sort of afraid of not what I didn’t know as a parent and what this would mean for my child as far as their life and the trajectory of their life.
As a parent, nobody wants their child to experience harm or isolation or danger and so I didn’t know what that meant at the time. ”
BriAn
na Simons
Mom of 2
Clinical Social Worker
Author, The Pink Balloon
Founder, BriAnna Simons Therapeutic Services
“The next steps that we took was really just exploring where she was at what she needed. What this meant for her. Was it just that she needed to tell us and that she didn’t really want to do anything beyond that or was there something that needed to shift in her world or with how we related to her or how she was seen in public and to the world.
It was interesting because I’m so in awe of her but also other transgender and gender-expansive children because I see they just have such a knowing about them that’s even beyond most adults and their own awareness of identity because she knew what she needed.
Like she said, I want a lot of dresses. But next time, how many dresses do you want, and she said, seven. So like that was kind of an indication of I want to wear a dress every day.”
The Pink Balloon: A book about gender identity and shining as your true self
