Kindness is Advocacy: How to show up this Pride month with Gender Specialist Rebecca Minor

Looking to fully support the LGBTQ+ community, or a part of the community yourself? Kick off pride month with this educational yet casual discussion on all things pride, gender, allyship, and advocacy. Kaitlin is joined by Rebecca Minor, MSW, LICSW a queer, Jewish clinician, consultant, and educator specializing in the intersection of trauma, gender, and sexuality. As a Gender Specialist, Rebecca partners with trans and gender nonconforming youth through their journey of becoming, and is a guide to their parents in affirming it. Rebecca is part time faculty at Boston University School of Social work and always works through a lens that is trauma-informed and resilience-oriented. In addition to her clinical work, Rebecca has provided cultural competency training and consultation to organizations, schools, and businesses for the past decade.We hope this conversation helps you take some action steps this month and beyond to ensure equity for the LGBTQ+ community! Full transcriptQUOTES"So I feel so lucky because I'm with people in a lot of dark moments, but I also am exposed to all of these little pockets of joy of like, oh, this amazing thing happened at school or like I got cast in the musical as like a gender that I never thought I'd be able to play""that's how generational change is going to happen. Is if from a much younger age, we start to allow kids to see what's possible and not in a way that's harmful or scary or inappropriate. But, yeah, I can be this and that or I can have a family""Kids are fully equipped and ready for that. They're already doing it, and they're ready for the conversations. It's often, unfortunately, I think that parents don't have the tools sometimes, or are scared to embark on some of those conversations and that's where books are such a wonderful resource, because it's like, look, it's already right here.""That's what's wild to me, is the conversation about gender affirming care has gotten so twisted because cis people are the folks getting the most gender-affirming services and procedures and whatever. All day long,""But to me, it's about competent and informed care that supports the individuals being in the fullness of who they are.""the way things get talked about, it's like we're just out here, handing out body parts to people.""So often when parents reach out to me, even about therapy for very young child, I tell them, I don't think it's necessary and that most likely what's necessary is for the parents to do some parent coaching around unpacking their own ideas around gender and how they can show up and create opportunities for exploration for their little one""People always come in like I want to talk about my kid because my kid is the the thing we're here to talk about, but often the work starts with parents having and caregivers having to kind of unpack their own relationship to some of these ideas""It actually becomes almost like what feels like this injury to their sense of self when their child is like 'Yeah, that's not me' ""I think it's about a generosity of whatever resources you have whether that's time or energy or spirit or compassion, but it's all based in compassion and connection to other people"Connect with us on social media:'Kindness Is' Podcast InstagramKind Cotton InstagramKind Cotton TikTok