Feeling overwhelmed by political chaos, fear-based headlines, or growing attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, and unsure how to stay grounded as a parent?
You're not alone, and you're not powerless. In this heartfelt episode, Heather Hester shares how parents and allies can become a source of calm, clarity, and connection for LGBTQ+ youth during even the most uncertain times.
Heather speaks directly to the emotional exhaustion so many parents are feeling, and offers a new path forward, one rooted in self-regulation, intentional learning, and deepening your relationship with your child.
You’ll learn:
Why emotional regulation is the first step to supporting your child
How to filter media noise without becoming disengaged
Why building an affirming, inclusive home is more critical than ever
How to hold space for both grief and resilience in real time
You’ll also hear about Heather’s Learning to Parent With Pride course: a step-by-step program designed to help parents move from fear and confusion to confidence, compassion, and powerful allyship.
Whether you’re new to this journey or feeling stuck, this episode offers both comfort and concrete tools to help you keep showing up.
Press play to discover how to steady your nervous system, build stronger family connections, and become the trusted anchor your LGBTQ+ child needs most.
You don’t need to have all the answers, just a willingness to lead with love, empathy, and resilience.
Independent news sources mentioned in this episode:
The Guardian
ProPublica
The Atlantic
Politics Girl
Pod Save America
No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen
Hi, I’m Heather Hester, and I’m so glad you’re here!
Listen to *NEW* episodes every Tuesday and Friday!
At the heart of my work is a deep commitment to compassion, authenticity, and transformative allyship, especially for those navigating the complexities of parenting LGBTQ+ kids. Through this podcast, speaking, my writing, and the spaces I create, I help people unlearn bias, embrace their full humanity, and foster courageous, compassionate connection.
If you’re in the thick of parenting, allyship, or pioneering a way to lead with love and kindness, I’m here with true, messy, and heart-warming stories, real tools, and grounding support to help you move from fear to fierce, informed action.
Whether you’re listening in, working with me directly, or quietly taking it all in—I see you. And I’m so glad you’re part of this journey.
More Human. More Kind. formerly Just Breathe: Parenting Your LGBTQ Teen is a safe and supportive podcast and space where a mom and mental health advocate offers guidance on parenting with empathy, inclusion, and open-minded allyship, fostering growth, healing, and empowerment within the LGBTQ community—including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals—while addressing grief, boundaries, education, diversity, human rights, gender identity, sexual orientation, social justice, and the power of human kindness through a lens of ally support and community engagement.
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
I want to know how you are doing and I really mean that in the most sincere way.
Speaker A:
How are you?
Speaker A:
It's the understatement of the century to say the past couple of weeks have been tough.
Speaker A:
I think we could collectively come up with a thousand more descriptive synonyms, but here are a few that just come to mind.
Speaker A:
Shocking, devastating, terrifying, anxiety inducing, noxious, dangerous, and so on.
Speaker A:
Add your own.
Speaker A:
And while I know we all want answers to how and why, that just leads to spinning and what ifing.
Speaker A:
What is perhaps a little more productive is to acknowledge and allow what we can do something about.
Speaker A:
We can allow the five stages of grief to feel the denial, the anger, the bargaining, the depression, and finally the acceptance.
Speaker A:
Give yourself time.
Speaker A:
Look for the lessons and the opportunities to heal.
Speaker A:
Rest.
Speaker A:
It's okay to be dismayed, but whatever you do, don't give up.
Speaker A:
Our voices and actions will make a difference.
Speaker A:
As my good friend and former podcast guest Kelly Lubeck says, the world needs you.
Speaker A:
Well.
Speaker A:
Educate yourself and be clear eyed about what is happening around us.
Speaker A:
One of the best way to do that is to make sure your source of information is reliable and accurate.
Speaker A:
Stop consuming conspiracy theories and hoping that you'll wake up tomorrow morning to someone saying just kidding.
Speaker A:
So the first thing I'd like for you to do, if you haven't already, is to stop listening to or reading any mainstream news source.
Speaker A:
They have all been soiled by propaganda.
Speaker A:
Independent sources are more accurate and well rounded.
Speaker A:
My top three favorite sources are the Guardian, ProPublica and the Atlantic.
Speaker A:
And my three favorite podcasts right now are Politics Girl, Pod, Save America and no Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen.
Speaker A:
The second thing to do is to titrate your intake of information.
Speaker A:
Too much at one time can be daunting.
Speaker A:
And the third and perhaps most important thing is to remember that you are not alone.
Speaker A:
After all of the votes are counted, the Orange Felon's margin will likely be less than 2 points.
Speaker A:
And remember, the vote margin in all seven swing states combined was only approximately 780,000.
Speaker A:
They may be very, very loud, but they are not a huge majority.
Speaker A:
Long before the election played out this way, I had decided to offer my course Learning to Parent with Pride during the holidays.
Speaker A:
It just made sense to offer extra support during a time of year that can sometimes bring uncertainty and difficult interactions.
Speaker A:
Learning to Parent with Pride could transform your journey by offering clear steps to help you feel empowered and prepared to support your child with love and knowledge to understand and embrace LGBTQ language so you can communicate with respect and confidence and build a stronger connection with your child through open and healthy communication.
Speaker A:
There are six modules and each lesson within the modules is designed to guide you toward confidently supporting your child with compassion and understanding.
Speaker A:
The first module is Introduction and Preparation, getting grounded and ready to embrace the journey ahead.
Speaker A:
The second module is Learning to Embrace learning how to be present, grounded and on the same page with your child.
Speaker A:
Module three is Educating Yourself, unlearning these biases that we all have.
Speaker A:
From the coming out process to understanding mental health, you'll gain the knowledge you need to support your child fully.
Speaker A:
Module 4 is Empower Step into your role as an ally, an advocate, releasing fear and building positive open communication.
Speaker A:
Module five is Love, Explore, self Love, unconditional love for your child and creating a loving family space.
Speaker A:
And Module six is Learning to Parent with Pride and it will help you create a personalized toolkit that works for you and provides lasting peace.
Speaker A:
Each module also includes worksheets to help you deepen your learning.
Speaker A:
As a bonus, I am offering my popular and comprehensive Language of LGBTQIA ebook as a guide to respectful, inclusive communication.
Speaker A:
Learning to Parent with Pride is meant to empower you, increase your confidence, and offer tools and strategies to create more authentic connections with your child.
Speaker A:
We are entering a time that will require that we are stronger and more connected to those with whom we share the deepest bonds.
Speaker A:
In other words, our children, our partners and our friends, and those with whom we share common goals and hopes for the future.
Speaker A:
I have always believed that Learning to Parent with Pride is an invaluable tool, but now I also realize it could save you time and prevent tears and deep stress and worry.
Speaker A:
We need to be on alert and on our A game to best support our kids as we move into these uncertain times.
Speaker A:
My goal has always been to provide you with the best and most accurate information to guide you and to support you and your family on your journeys.
Speaker A:
Learning to Parent with Pride accomplishes all of this and right now is the perfect time to add it to your toolbox.
Speaker A:
It is my promise to you that I will continue to be here, sharing my knowledge and experience, holding space for you, and offering sources and insight on all news affecting our LGBTQ kids.
Speaker A:
The link to access this timely, invaluable course is in the Show Notes.
Speaker A:
It can also be found on my website, chrysalismama.com and through the links in my weekly newsletter.
