Now what?

Despite growing but limited awareness of gender variance, the books available on the topic largely ignore the needs of families who struggle to understand and support their gender-nonconforming loved ones. Now What? offers a comprehensive approach to the issues and challenges that families must confront. It defines terms, explains options, provides resources, lays out the history of transgenderism, and offers guidance through the myriad issues that confront families with a gender-nonconforming child. Practical in approach and authoritative in scope, it provides information and support for families with children of all ages, offering help to families with a transgender adult as well as those with a pre-school child who is shouting, "Stop calling me a boy Im a girl. Tell them, Mommy " Finally, here is a book for the parent facing the confusion, anxiety, fear, frustration and guilt that accompany this journey. Perhaps you dont know what to say to your child.^ Perhaps you wish you could take back what you just said, or you wonder how to respond to the callous remarks of others, or you find yourself continuously asking, "Now What?" After reading this book, you will have a solid working knowledge of the issues you are likely to encounter and will have the tools needed to adopt clear strategies for dealing with those issues. Rex Butt is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences at Bronx Community College of the City University of New York. He has served on the Board of Directors for the Hudson Valley LGBTQ Center and is a member of the PFLAG National Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming (TGNC) Advisory Council. He and his wife Karen live in Poughkeepsie and are the Transgender Coordinators for the Kingston, NY, chapter of PFLAG (Parents Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays).^ They have mentored and counseled scores of families and continue to present support and information sessions for families with gender-nonconforming loved ones at conferences.