Intro: In the Den with Mama Dragons

Have you heard of Mama Dragons? Are you curious who we are? And why in the world we're adding yet another podcast to the podcasting world? Join us in the den and we'll get you all caught up so you can save yourself a comfy seat on the sofa for our upcoming episodes!

Transcript

Hello and welcome. You are listening to In the Den with Mama Dragons. I’m your host, Jen. This podcast was created out of our desire to walk and talk with you through this journey of raising healthy, happy, and productive LGBTQ humans. 

OK. So here’s the deal.  We all know the joke about wishing that parenthood came with a manual, right?  I mean, sure, there are some aspects of parenting children that we probably all expected, even if we knew they wouldn’t be easy.  We might have had vague expectations of diapers and sleepless nights and fussy babies and grumpy teens, but parenthood is nothing if not full of the unexpected. And just when you think you have it figured out, there are twists and turns and surprises that require new skills.  We inevitably arrive at crossroads in our parenting journey where we don’t know what road to take.  Feeling lost can shake our confidence and make us doubt ourselves and our ability to navigate parenthood. These times can make us question everything, and can feel deeply lonely.  This can be especially true if you find yourself parenting an LGBTQ child.  Many of us were raised in families and cultures that didn’t celebrate queerness.  We probably didn’t get great information in school about parenting a gay or trans child.  We may have religious experiences that have made parenting an LGBTQ child particularly difficult.  Maybe your child is in the closet and you can’t even talk to anyone about the challenges you are facing. Parenting a queer child can be especially challenging and lonely. The founders of Mama Dragons recognized that need for community and support, and this is the basis of our organization.  

Mama Dragons began organically on social media: toward the end of 2012, a woman named Gina had started a Gay-Straight Alliance at a local high school. She needed advice and turned to a group of moms she knew online who had LGBTQ kids.  They started a messaging thread which grew quickly as word spread.  More and more Moms who were navigating supporting their kids in their non-affirming religion joined the group.  At the start of 2013, Gina moved the message thread to a Facebook group, as the conversations were becoming harder to track.  The name “Mama Dragons” came from a 2012 blog post by a mother named Meg, shortly after her young son came out as gay.  She said, “I have always been a ‘Mother Bear’; once I found out about Jon, that didn’t seem a fierce enough title. There’s a whole new level of protection that has come over me. I now call myself a Mama Dragon.  I would literally breathe fire if someone hurt my son.”  Soon after, the group adopted the name Mama Dragons.  

In 2018, Mama Dragons became a 501C(3) Non-Profit organization of mothers from all backgrounds, with one common purpose: to support, educate and empower one another in raising happy and healthy LGBTQ kids.  While our roots are in Mormonism, our membership has grown to include a diverse population of mothers, regardless of their faith traditions, from all over the United States and beyond.  While many of us intimately understand the disconnect between faith and having an LGBTQ child, our intersectionality goes beyond faith to include many cultural, political, and geographic differences. We’ve come a long way since that initial conversation among a handful of Moms almost 10 years ago. 

The mission of Mama Dragons is to support, educate and empower mothers of LGBTQ children.  We envision a world in which all mothers fiercely love, affirm and advocate for their LGBTQ children.  

This podcast was created out of our desire to walk and talk with you through this journey of raising happy, healthy and productive LGBTQ humans.  We know that there can be a pretty steep learning curve, depending on your previous experience with the queer community, and we want to meet you where you are, and help you learn and grow in understanding the unique information and skills you will need to help your child thrive.  It doesn’t matter if your LGBTQ child is 5, or 45, this podcast is for you.

We’ll talk through important questions and have meaningful conversations around parenting LGBTQ children throughout their lives.  Each week, In The Den will visit with other parents of queer kids, talk with members of the LGBTQ community, learn from experts in LGBTQ-related fields, and together explore ways to better parent our LGBTQ children.  Listeners can suggest topics for future episodes.  

We hope you’ll join us and find support and encouragement and celebration as you work to be the best parent possible for your LGBTQ child.

You can find In The Den on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast.  By subscribing, you’ll get the latest conversations as soon as they’re released and you’ll never miss an episode.

We’re so glad you found us!  Parenthood is challenging enough, and nobody should have to navigate it alone.  We look forward to walking this path of parenting an LGBTQ child together with you.

For more information on Mama Dragons and the podcast, you can visit our website at mamadragons.org, and if you’d like to support Mama Dragons in our mission to support, educate and empower parents of LGBTQ children, visit us and donate at mamadragons.org, or click the donate link in the show notes.  We’re glad you’re here.