What's It Like Growing Up With A Transgender Parent? Sharon Shattuck Knows.
Posted byGina
on June 28, 2012
http://www.autostraddle.com/sharon-shattuck-and-project-dad-the-autostraddle-interview-140438/When Sharon Shattuck was a kid, her dad told her that she identified as a woman and that she was going to change her name to Trisha. Now, Sharon has decided to explore her father's experience, along with the experience of LGBT families across America by making a documentary.
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GINA: Because I think it would be very useful for future LGBT parents to hear from a "kid" perspective, looking back on your experience with your dad, is there anything you wish either of you had done differently? Any questions you wished you had asked?
SHARON: I think the one thing that really sticks with me from my childhood is that I felt very alone--I felt like no one else's family was like mine, so I just sequestered that part of my life and didn't talk about it with my friends or acquaintances. Trish (my dad) became the elephant in the room — everyone in town knew of her, but no one wanted to ask questions or to understand our family dynamic. It was very Midwestern and stoic, but there was also an undercurrent of fierce suspicion and fear from some people in the community.
I guess I wish I had talked about it more, and been more open from the start, open to answering questions and diffusing the fear that some (but not all) people exhibited. It would have been an opportunity to educate people who might not otherwise know any LGBT people. I also wish that I could have met other kids from LGBT families, but I think that when I was younger, that Midwestern tendency to not talk about things also ran pretty strong in me, so it might not have really changed things much.
