Transpeeps Need Family Love During The Holidays, Too

The holiday season is cranking up once again and for the next month we'll be inundated with holiday specials showing people with their families. 

We'll have commercials trying to sell us stuff with the same returning home for the holidays theme.  We'll be inundated with Christmas music on heavy rotation on our favorite radio stations heavy on the home and family message and all the other trappings of the Festival of Conspicuous Consumption and its peace on earth and good will to all message.

I'm blessed to be one of those transpeople that can not only pick up the phone and call my parents and other family members on a regular basis, I get to hang out with them during the holiday season and beyond in the New Year at reunions and other events.

However, there are some people in the trans community that aren't so blessed.  Because they are living their lives as their true selves, their families have rejected them   Add to it the everyday slights, discrimination, outright disrespect and denial of our humanity aimed at transpeople combined with the relentless drumbeat of happy family life depicted in the media, you have a perfect storm of events that can depress a person in that situation.

If it is not checked in time that can and has led to people in the trans community taking their lives.

The pain of rejection hurts.  The pain gets more intense during the holiday season, and hence our heightened concern during the holiday season for our trans community members that are struggling emotionally to get through the holiday season.  

So with another holiday season upon us, let's be cognizant of the fact there are people in our community that can't go home for the holidays.  There are folks whose families will not invite them to sit at the family Thanksgiving table or get to eat Christmas dinner this year, much less even call them or drop them off a Christmas gift.

If you find yourself in that situation of not having contact with your blood family, combat the holiday blues by creating a family of your own and building holiday traditions with them.  If you know of people in the community who are going to be alone today or on Christmas Day, extend an invitation for them to have dinner at your holiday table.   They'll deeply appreciate having a destination to go to during this holiday season and you'll have somebody else to share that turkey with.


Failing that, there's always some organization in town who will need volunteers to help them serve Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners to the homeless or less fortunate among us. 

Consider doing that to take your mind off the fact you're not with your blood family on this day.   

Yes, transpeople need family love every day of the year, but that need is even more pronounced during the holiday season.     

And if other people won't give it to you, be tough minded enough to give that gift to yourself.