Reconstructing Relationships in a Transgender Family: The Story of Parents of Japanese Transgender Children

Raising and nurturing children is one of the most important functions of a modern family, and the emotional parent-child bond is typically strong. However, in the case of transgender children, to what extent do their gender issues impact their relationships with their parents? When discovering that their child is transgender, parents either accept them or change or reconstruct their relationship. This study discusses the process of creating new relationships and parents’ viewpoints by analyzing the narratives of parents of Japanese transgender children. Ten in-depth interviews of parents with transgender children were conducted. The interviewees included eight mothers and three fathers. Data were collected from November 2012 to October 2013 in Kobe, Tokyo, and Fukuoka.

First, in these families, children’s problems were mainly handled by mothers because fathers had a comparatively tenuous relationship with their children and tended to avoid the topic of sexual minorities. Two types of reactions were seen on discovering that their child was transgender. The first was an “as suspected” response, while the second was extreme shock. The interviewees then began gathering more knowledge about gender issues and LGBT by reading or visiting LGBT communities to understand and generally acknowledge their child’s unique or queer gender identity. And in their life stories, parents tried to reconfirm or reconstruct images of their children and refortify their emotional ties with them.