Aunts play a surprisingly critical role in supporting LGBTQ youth, study finds
A new study found that aunts play a crucial role in supporting their young LGBTQ relatives, including by preventing them from experiencing homelessness if their parents are not supportive.
Stacey Monroe came out to her aunt as gay when she was 13, because she felt like her grandmother, who raised her, wouldn’t understand.
She said her tía — which means “aunt” in Spanish — was immediately supportive and eventually helped facilitate conversations between Monroe and her grandmother to help the teen come out. Tía Mary told Monroe’s grandmother that the young woman knows who she is, “so it’s just a matter of letting them be,” Monroe recalled.
“It was really nice to have that support, because my mom respected her a lot,” Monroe, who lives in Dallas, told NBC News, referring to her tía and her grandmother, whom she calls “mom.” “My mom was able to slowly learn from her and get that knowledge and education from her and just have those uncomfortable conversations, because she was almost like that mediator.”
Stacey Monroe's grandmother, Martina, and tía, Mary.Courtesy Stacey MonroeMary continued to support Monroe after she came out as transgender a few years later, even when Monroe’s grandmother initially didn’t support her.
A study published last month in Socius, an open-access journal of the American Sociological Association, found that aunts play a crucial role in supporting their young relatives who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer and transgender, including by preventing them from experiencing homelessness if their parents are less supportive.
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