One Thing Americans Agree On

A surprising fact I found while planning my talk for Free Mom Hugs

Dear ones,

At the national conference for Free Mom Hugs I gave a talk about the importance of building a community of support around the trans community. I decided on that topic because the trans community makes up about 1.6% of the entire US community (there is some controversy about this—some sources put the number around 0.8% and others measure it at around 3.0%). No matter how one measures it, the number is small, and will always and forever be an extreme minority in the population, which makes the community extraordinarily vulnerable to attack by the majority. The current administration is manipulating people’s ignorance about this very small population so that a large swathe of the American electorate develops a shared fear/disgust for how the inclusion of transgender people will impact our culture, which is a classic strategy of authoritarian regimes.

The highest purpose of my book, About Bliss, is to support families raising gender nonconforming kids by building a community of allies.

Which is why I decided to talk about building community.

Early in my research for the talk, I stumbled on a study that established a stunning level of national agreement during our divisive times.

90% of Americans believe that the country is experiencing a mental health crisis (according to this KFF/CNN study).

Groups reporting highest levels of poor mental health are young adults ages 18-29 and people in the LGBTQ+ community.

None of us can solve this mental health crisis alone, but the broad agreement that we are in pain is fertile ground for coming together. In addition, research shows that social belonging and connectedness is as good or better defense against depression than an anti depressant.

While not groundbreaking. These two facts together are a great excuse for having fun in groups. I ended my talk in Dallas with a rapid fire slide show of possible gatherints. Here are some of the ideas I shared….who’s in?

A crochet night making these cuties:

A watch party for Billy Porter’s directorial debut:

A cake picnic:

A wig party:

An oldie but goodie:

Start a co-ed team, costumes encouraged:

Host a book party online or IRL: If you can gather a group of people, I will make time for you