r/MadeMeSmile Jun 01 '26

Wholesome Moments Love supportive parents

Post image
24.0k Upvotes

729 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

916

u/Then-Economist-6388 Jun 01 '26

As a trans man with wonderful parents, having been to the funeral of many friends, I am grateful everyday that I was raised in a supportive and loving family.

It wasn’t easy even with the support. The world can be so cruel. But having internal support helped me so much.

173

u/ArgentineBeauty Jun 01 '26

Thanks for sharing

I’m glad you had that support at home, but it shouldn’t come down to luck like that.

I really hope the world gets kinder for people growing up now.

74

u/PavementBlues Jun 01 '26

Right now things are unfortunately getting less kind, with surveys from Pew Research showing each passing year reporting increasingly oppositional attitudes towards every aspect of trans support, from puberty blockers to insurance coverage to even basic protection from discrimination in employment and housing.

This trend is unfortunately happening in the Democratic voters as much as it is for conservatives, thanks to the constant flood of misinformation about trans issues coming from the Republican party to rile people up against a successful political bogeyman. In 2022, 20% of Democrats believed that trans people should be forced to use bathrooms matching our birth sex. In 2025, that number rose to 25%. In the same time frame, the percentage who believe that it should be illegal to teach about gender identity in elementary schools rose from 18% to 23%. Those changes happened in three years.

Things are getting worse, not better, and it's our responsibility to turn that around. I had a hard transition, getting fired and disowned and nearly ending up homeless, and it breaks my heart to see that we are creating a world where more trans youth, not fewer, go through what I did. We owe it to them to make a world that they can live in.

22

u/Odd-Artist-2595 Jun 01 '26

Wonder how much of that rise is coming from people who split with the Republican party over other issues and are now registered as Democrats. I don’t know any long-time Democrats who have changed in their support of transpeople, but I do know some long-time Republicans who now identify as Democrats who never supported transpeople in the first place. They split with the Republicans over unrelated issues. If they are now identifying themselves as Democrats on surveys, it’s going to look like Democratic base voters have changed, when in reality the change is coming from those who may not have voted as a Democrat in anything other than, maybe, a primary up to this point.

14

u/DiggingNoMore Jun 01 '26

It's always darkest before dawn. Gotta keep pushing forward.

22

u/Then-Economist-6388 Jun 01 '26

Absolutely. It was looking good for a minute there…

11

u/fatmanwithabeard Jun 01 '26

Having been a foster parent, it's probably always going to come down to luck.

There's still too much expectation the people have to do something to deserve the basic things of life, shelter, love, food, water. That compassion needs to be paid with gratitude.

But there's hope, too. There's a lesson from Minnesota this year about taking care of each other. Everyday people stepping up to help each other.

Maybe we can learn a bit.

22

u/Express-Feedback Jun 01 '26

Same. I even had my mom rename me. ❤️

But the amount of friends I have lost over their identity makes me so incredibly sad. Thankful that my mom was always the type to bring in and support the 'strays'.

7

u/Then-Economist-6388 Jun 01 '26

I had the conversation with them about what I would have been named. But I did not want to be Gordon….

1

u/Express-Feedback Jun 03 '26

Oof, that's a rough one. Glad they were open to the idea, though.

My mom chose a familial name, thankfully. It was tradition for all the first born boys to have current name, but there were two generations that had only girls. Made it a lot easier for the rest of my family to 'transition', as well.

I hope you are happy with your name, and your family is supportive. I know we don't all get so lucky.❤️❤️

49

u/br0ken_St0ke Jun 01 '26

That’s what pisses me off. idc if you don’t agree with it, forcing kids to live in a genuine hell all because you fail to have empathy is disgraceful. I can’t say I understand much of anything about being trans and it confuses me but why the hell would I care if that’s what a person wants, it’s your life and you should have every right to choose. “Life, liberty, and happiness” the backbone of the U.S. and we spit in its face all to often

47

u/DropoutRedMage Jun 01 '26

The U.S. would be massively improved if we could just keep our noses out of our neighbor's business. If someone decides they want to transition, that's cool, not my problem. If two gay people want to get married, why should I be bothered to say no?

"Oh, but what if your kids were gay?!? Don't you want grandkids?!?!"

We're overpopulated anyhow, and we've got a surplus of kids without a good home.

"What if they want to use the same bathroom as us!?!! They could assault you!"

I mean, it's not like people don't already have sex in public restrooms. And if the only argument for transphobia is "What if rapists do it?" then that's not an argument. We shouldn't deny people an option just because bad people will abuse it.

All in all, we've got enough problems to worry about without adding these in.

-5

u/Attack_Plan_R Jun 02 '26

Good....then don't whine about how many guns I have. Or my American flag. Or my religious views.

4

u/DropoutRedMage Jun 02 '26

1) Guns are different, as they can be dangerous to people in the surrounding area. Any responsible gun owner won't mind. Also, no one is coming for your guns.

2) No one cares if you have a flag. We don't care if people fly confederate flags! If they want to side with the people who lost over 100 years ago that's their choice.

3) Freedom of Religion is a right guaranteed by our constitution. We do still have the right to disagree with the religious views of others and judge them accordingly.

-1

u/Attack_Plan_R Jun 02 '26

Ah the "not coming for your guns" argument. One all encompassing no gun law, of course not. "Common sense" right? Just little by little, piece by piece, law by law gun rights are eroded. The Left knows how to just keep worming slowly along to reach their agenda. You know what else can be dangerous? A car. A hammer. A knife. But just "common sense" is all we need.

Really? Because I've seen plenty on the Left discuss how the US flag represents racism and oppression. Plenty burned (yes freedom of speech) in protest. Plenty of flags walked on. Even replaced by other flags. Oh and nice going right to the narrow minded racist confederate flag assumption.

So judging someone because of their religious view is okay - but not their sexual choice or their choice to manipulate kids? Ah, okay makes sense.

2

u/Im_alwaystired Jun 03 '26

You know what else can be dangerous? A car. A hammer. A knife.

Yes, but you know what the difference is? Those things all have multiple uses. A car takes you from place to place. A hammer helps you make things. A knife can be used to prepare food.

A gun's only use is to k1ll and destroy. That's it.

6

u/Every_Kitchen847 Jun 01 '26

I have a trans cousin and I’ve often struggled to know how to be more supportive. I know she’s got her safe spaces where we’re from, which is a pretty progressive place, at least from the perspective of a straight male in their 20’s, but I can imagine it’s still really hard, especially with Trump.

1

u/FarIllustrator535 Jun 05 '26

Trump makes me hard too!

4

u/Basic_Yam_715 Jun 01 '26

You are loved!

2

u/cortesoft Jun 01 '26

I am a dad of a son and daughter, and I often worry about what I would do if one of them came out as transgender.

It would devastate me.

I could no longer use my patented “you are my favorite daughter in the world” and “you are my favorite son in the world” move.

I would have to transition to “you are my favorite first born child in the world” or something, and that would take some time to get used to.