Metro DC
Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG)
Recommended Reading List
2005

ACCEPTING YOUR CHILD

Always my Child: A Parent?s Guide to Understanding your Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered, or Questioning Son or Daughter by Kevin Jennings.
This book focuses on the day-to-day experiences of adolescents facing sexual identity issues, while providing the insight and advice parents need to both support their children and cope themselves. (2002)

Beyond Acceptance: Parents of Lesbians and Gays Talk About Their Experiences by Carolyn W. Griffin and Marian J. Wirth.
Parents of lesbians and gays discuss their experiences, from the initial anger, denial, and guilt to closeness, acceptance, and beyond. (1997)

Coming Out As Parents: You and Your Homosexual Child by David K. Switzer.
This complete revision of Parents of the Homosexual helps parents understand their feelings and reactions to the knowledge that their child is a homosexual. Suitable for counselors and clergy too. (1996).

Coming Out to Parents: A Two-Way Survival Guide for Lesbians and Gay Men and Their Parents by Mary. V. Borhek.
This book provides insight to either parents or gay individuals as they "come out." It bridges gaps in understanding what your family member is going through during this process. (1993)

Family Heart: A Memoir of When Our Son Came Out by Robb Forman Dew.
Family Heart tells the story of what happened to novelist and PFLAG mom Robb Forman Dew, and her family, when her 19 year old son told her he was gay. (1995)

Love, Ellen: A Mother/Daughter Journey by Betty Degeneres.
In Love, Ellen, Ellen Degeneres? mother Betty tells her story: the complicated path to acceptance and her deepening friendship with her daughter, media scrutiny, and tales from her experiences being the first non-gay spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign?s National Coming Out Project. (2000) By the same author Just a Mom

My Child is Gay: How Parents React When They Hear the News by Bryce McDougall.
Honest stories of parents and the emotions they experienced when their son or daughter told them they were gay. (1998)

Straight Parents, Gay Children: Keeping Families Together by Robert Bernstein.
"As one of hundreds of thousands of parents who love our children, I wish this book would be required reading for the world." – Betty Degeneres (1999)