Caring for Transgender and Gender-diverse Parents

Transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) people comprise approximately 0.9% of adults in the United States; among them, 18% to 50% of TGD adults surveyed report being parents. Younger generations of Americans are more likely to identify as TGD, and also more likely to desire children than previous generations of TGD individuals surveyed. Despite this, TGD parents are often underrepresented in literature on parenting experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) parents. TGD parents experience significant mental health, physical health, and socioeconomic disparities due to gender minority stressors, and numerous barriers to reproductive care and affirming mental health care. This article presents an overview of the current literature on TGD parents, psychosocial outcomes for children of TGD parents, common clinical issues that may arise in treatment, and strategies for supporting TGD families to build resilience.