“Sex Ed for Parents of LGBTQ+ Youth” is a 3-part workshop series that will help parents and caregivers learn both content knowledge and communication skills to ensure that their LGBTQ+ child/ren are supported in ways that will improve the parent/child relationship.
The workshops will be led by experienced health educator Dennis Flores, Assistant Professor of Family and Community Health at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.
As the coming out process happens ever earlier for many children, the time that they’re under parents’ care, influence, and teaching grows. Parents need to be equipped and to understand their LGBTQ+ child/ren and their sexual maturation, feelings, needs, and safety, yet many parents feel way out of their depth. Even more so when their child’s journey is different than their own. But it’s so important for parents to keep communication open and honest in order to build up the bonds and trust with their kids, while they live together and when time comes for kids to strike out on their own.
The aim of this workshop series is to help parents create trust and a safe space with their children where they can talk honestly about gender identity and sexual orientation. The 3 sessions of the series will focus on:
- Your Child is LGBTQ+: A Plea for Tailored Sexual Health Discussion At Home
- The Nitty-Gritty Details When Talking to LGBTQ+ Adolescents
- Not Your Parents’ Sex Talk: The Practice of Affirmative Communication
The series of 3 workshops will take place every other month starting on Tuesday, March 29 from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. ET, and then again at the same time on May 17 and July 19. In between sessions, participants will have time for reading and practice with additional learning resources to prepare for the next session. Participants are asked to plan to attend all 3 sessions in the series to gain optimum knowledge and skills.
The workshop series is offered free of charge to the PFLAG NYC community and will take place online via Zoom. Registration will close on March 28.
Registration for the workshop series is now closed.
If you have any questions, contact LoAn Nguyen at LoAn@pflagnyc.org.
About the Presenter — Dennis Flores
Dennis Flores is an Assistant Professor of Family and Community Health at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, an affiliated faculty member at UPenn’s Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Program, and also is a Visiting Faculty Fellow at the Center for Research on AIDS at Yale University’s School of Public Health.
He has led several studies that investigates the role of parents in the sexual health education of their adolescent children who identify as LGBTQ. His studies fuel his subsequent HIV prevention work that includes both urban and rural community education, being a national spokesperson for HIV testing campaigns, and workforce development with around 1300 nurses across three continents.
Dr. Flores earned his PhD from Duke University, a Masters in Public Health Nursing Leadership at Emory University, and a Bachelors in Nursing from Kennesaw State University in Georgia.
