Love Me for Me: Stories for Children in Transgender Families

Love Me for Me is a project that started in 2014 in the United States at Southern Illinois University by Dr. Aminata Cairo and her anthropology students at the time. Guided by Sayer Johnson, head of the St. Louis Trans Umbrella Group, and Anne Wolfe, children’s librarian, Dr. Cairo and her students wrote a number of stories for children in Transgender families. 

These stories were then publicly presented by a “reader’s theater” production under direction of Theater professor Kathryn Bentley. Since then the project has traveled to the Netherlands where it was first picked up in a research class under Dr. Cairo at Leiden University College. Together with The Hangout 070, a community LGBT+ organization for youth of migrant background in The Hague, the stories were again presented as reader’s theater to the public.

Now the stories will become part of the new minor at The Hague University of Applied Sciences entitled Sexuality and Diversity, which will start in September 2020. The story collection will be offered in a project assignment. In this assignment students will use these stories to engage teachers and their pupils with the ultimate goal of developing a discussion guide. The stories are being translated from English to Dutch by the Student Branch staff.