- Publisher: Demeter Press
- ISBN: 9781927335055
- Price: $24.95 CAD
- Publication Date: Apr 2012
- Rights: World
- Pages: 234
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Request Exam CopyMother-Talk
Conversations with Mothers of Lesbian Daughters and FTM Transgender Children
Sarah F. Pearlman
Twenty-four mothers, tweny-four stories capture the complexity of coming to terms with the loss of a daughter who has changed sex or an anticipated relationship with a daughter, now a lesbian, who lives in a different world and will lead a different life. This ground-breaking book will help other mothers as well as lesbian daughters and ftm transgender children to understand their own mothers, their changed lives, and their determination to remain connected.
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
Devastation
1. Hannah: That child always gave me trouble.
2. Edie: What would people think of me?
3. Sara: She wasn’t going to be the nice little lesbian I hoped she would be
4. Karen: Gay was a piece of cake
5. Anna: Why would you want to be a white male?
Loss
6. Elise: She’s a guy now
7. Mariam: All those weddings. All those showers
8. Jenny: He’s gonna lose everything except his parents
9. Lisa: I miss the person he was when he was she
Adolescence
10. Debra: I felt helpless as a mother
11. Rina: Mom, that’s me. I am a boy. Inside I am a boy
12. Beth: I just don’t like labels
Not the Only Issue
13. Lila: I regret the kind of mother I was
14. Fran: She took me on a ride I wasn’t prepared for
15. Naomi: Parents do leave kids on hillsides
16. Cheryl: Her lesbianism is third in line
Connection
17. Shirley: God, watch over her for me, everyday
18. Lois: Whatever kind of relationship he wants to have, we will have
19. Eleanor: If I couldn’t be supportive, I couldn’t be around
20. Annemarie: You can’t hide a baby
21. Lillian: My child is not an abomination
Activism
22. Marie: She made me more of a person
23. Judith: I have a much happier son than I ever did a daughter
24. Martha; Just expect to see somebody that looks like your former daughter’s twin brother
Appendices
The Mothers
The Interviews
Notes
About the Author
Sarah F. Pearlman was selected by the American Psychological Association Society for the Psychological Study of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues as the recipient of the 2011 Award for Distinguished Professional Contribution. Employed for many years as an Associate Professor in the Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology at the University of Hartford, Sarah is now Associate Professor Emeritus. She lives in Boston and is active in LGBT elder organizations.