Historically FFLAG has, since 1993, been a charity dedicated to supporting parents and their lesbian, gay and bisexual daughters and sons. We have mostly been parents of LGB children ourselves and, as such, have felt most able to support those whose experiences are similar to our own. But times change.

Recent LGBT legislation in the UK such as the Equality Act 2010 and the legalisation of same-sex marriages in England, Wales and Scotland in 2014 have been very welcome. Also, society in general and younger generations in particular have become more inclusive in their understanding of differing sexual orientation. However, along with these changes, we have seen a substantial increase in the number of young people being referred to support services for help with transgender issues.

Many of the enquiries we currently receive from parents are from those with trans youngsters. The difficulties trans youngsters face are not the same as those for LGB youngsters (who face issues relating to their sexuality), since theirs relate to their gender identity. However, the issues may indeed cross the boundaries of gender and sexuality which our society has so rigidly enforced. General understanding of trans issues in our society is still limited and waiting times for specialist support are very long. We therefore want to extend our remit to include support for family and friends of trans people. FFLAG has no paid staff and we are just eight trustees but we are working in partnership with people in the trans community, their families and other organisations to build our capacity. Local groups which are affiliated with us are becoming trans inclusive to varying degrees.

So far, we have:

• Updated the FFLAG web site to include trans issues.
• Appointed the parent of a trans young person to our Board of Trustees.
• Published new support booklets ‘A Guide for Family and Friends: Transgender’ and ‘How Do I Tell My Parents: I’m Transgender” available on request or from our Downloads
• We are currently creating a resource for trans parents who need support breaking their news to their children.

We will continue to:

• Work in partnership with trans organisations to avoid replicating their work.
• Review and update our current literature and also produce new material.
• Appoint more parents of trans youngsters to our Board of Trustees.
• Make sure inclusion of trans issues in our publications is led by trans people themselves and their families.

We are still developing our trans support and are not now setting ourselves up as the experts but rather are looking to those who have personally faced these situations themselves to work with us, for the sake of those who are looking for help now.

If you would like to be a part of the work that FFLAG is doing, please contact us.