Document Type
Poster
Publication Date
Summer 2025
Abstract
Parental support is one of the strongest predictors of transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) youths’ well-being, yet the relationship between parents and their children is highly variable. While some parents cultivate bonds of trust and resilience through affirming approaches, others adopt a rejecting mode, which heightens risks of mental illness, family estrangement, and housing instability for TGD youths. Legislators and courts selectively invoke parental rights to either protect parents’ authority to reject their children or to question the capacity of supportive parents, exposing contradictions in how the argument “parents know best” is applied. I seek to demonstrate that affirming parental approaches, rather than rejection, best fulfill the purpose of parental autonomy by centering children’s well-being and supporting their ability to thrive, and that the law should reflect a commitment to a fairer application of parental rights.
Rights Statements
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-NC/1.0/
Recommended Citation
Nguyen, Chau Anh and Johnson, Austin, "Exploring The Relationship between Parents and Transgender Youths & How Parental Rights are invoked in reasoning for Anti-trans legislation" (2025). John W. Adams Summer Scholars Program in Socio-Legal Studies. Paper 33.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/summerlegalprogram/33
Rights Statement
