Raising Transgender Teens with Josephine Hughes

Newborn to Teen and Everything in Between

We met Josephine at The International Women’s Podcast Awards when she was nominated for her podcast ‘Gloriously unready’ and we were nominated for ours 😉.

Josephine was mum to 3 boys – quite the challenge (her words!). However, two of her children told her (completely independently and within a few months of each other) that they were transgender. One of Josephine’s daughters has now been on hormones for about 8 years (she is now, at the time of recording, 30) and the other daughter for about 3 years (she is now 26). Josephine now has 1 son and 2 daughters.

Amongst alot of things, we spoke with Josephine about:

• How hard it was to accept – Josephine had to readjust all her thinking and deal with her own feelings of loss and fear – were her children they wrong, were they making a mistake?
• Josephine’s feelings when the children told her (you can listen to Josephine's youngest daughter’s side of the story at the start of the second series of Josephine’s podcast Gloriously unready).
• How there were no signs of the children questioning their gender in childhood, yet one of the girls said to Josephine that she had felt like it for the whole of her life.
• How Josephine's middle child has felt about it all.
• Whether the religious side of Josephine's life made it harder for her especially with regards to acceptance of what had happened in her church.
• How while the explosion of social media and open discussion around sexuality and gender has opened up the conversation for teens, it can be difficult for parents to navigate how to handle this.
• How important it is that people might not understand transgender but that having a respectful society is what we need.
• Puberty blockers, surgery and the recent Cass review.
• How meeting transgender people and having conversations with them about the process and hearing their stories has provided Josephine with support and understanding in this area.
• Practical things that can be done to change your gender and how much easier it is to do these things in other countries.
• How Josephine's wider family reacted to the girls including how, since her 2 girls came out, and just a couple of years ago, Josephine’s brother also came out as transgender and is now her sister.
• What Josephine would say to parents whose children have just told them they are transgender.
• The real positives of being a transgender parent.

Another of our podcast episodes you might find interesting – Gender and Sexuality

Josephine’s podcast page - Gloriously unready

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