StoryCorps brings loved ones together for thousands of meaningful conversations about the things that matter most. The StoryCorps mobile tour visited Brattleboro last month, and recorded conversations with folks from across Vermont and beyond.
Today, we hear from a mother and son in a touching story about identity, support and mental health.
This interview was produced for the ear. We highly recommend listening to the audio. We’ve also provided a transcript below, which has been edited for length and clarity.
Atlas Bederson: Hi, I'm Atlas, I'm a trans guy who's just finished my first year in college in upstate New York. I'm passionate about mental health and specifically mental health advocacy, more specifically in teenagers and youth.
Allison Druin: I am a proud, fierce mama ally, and totally inspired by a kid named Atlas to change my, my professional mission because of my personal experiences and my journey. A lot of people ask us, right Atlas, “You're a mom ally and you’re a queer son. What do you actually even share in common?" (Laughter) "Do you actually have anything in common?”
What do you think? What do we have in common?
Atlas Bederson: I always want to know why. And you'd always help me understand why or figure out why not. So, curiosity, and even more than that, brainstorming a hard problem.
Allison Druin: As a little kid, you would always come into a room and say, "I, I really don't like the way this works." You know, six years old, you don't like the way it works? And then we would have to brainstorm. I guess it's that shared curiosity, that shared impatience with, when something doesn't seem right.
When don't you feel that you are not most authentic?
Atlas Bederson: I immediately go to the various treatment centers that I ended up at. The first one made me feel like parts of my identity were being stripped away. And the option to find my own identity was not, was not there.
Allison Druin: When we really got inspired was when we started meeting parents like us, basically struggling to support their kids. You know, whether they were trans or non-binary themselves in terms of being a parent, what we did share was a real concern with how to support our kid. Why do our kids have to wait until college to find community, to find their chosen family, if you will? When we were looking for a therapeutic school for you, I couldn't believe there wasn't a school anywhere that had only LGBTQ+ teens — teens that identified themselves in that community. Strangely enough, we thought the easiest thing would be to start a school, right? (Laughter)
That's sort of ridiculous, right? What will the future look like, when there's schools like this, that say, “We're proudly queer. And it's OK. And it's great." What, what's the future look like when that happens?
Atlas Bederson: Well, I think about how good are these teenagers going to feel to be able to know that they're safe and that they — not only are they safe, but they're understood, you know, and they're accepted. How is that going to make them feel? And I'm just excited to hear those stories from them. And maybe not all of them will feel exactly that way immediately, but I hope that they're able to feel as understood as they deserve to be.
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