More Human. More Kind. | Parenting LGBTQ Kids, Unlearning Fear, Becoming More Human

Do you pour out gratitude for everyone else, but forget to include yourself?

As the holidays approach, gratitude can start to feel like a performance. In this soulful solo episode, Heather helps you reclaim it, starting with the most overlooked person in your life: you.

• Learn how thanking yourself rewires your brain and soothes your nervous system
• Understand why authentic gratitude embraces both joy and grief
• Try a 3-minute practice to anchor appreciation in your body not just your mind
• Reframe self-directed gratitude as strength, not selfishness

Listen now to remember why you belong on your own gratitude list and how to gently come back to yourself, one breath at a time.

• Most gratitude practices leave you out of the equation
• Self-gratitude is not arrogance, it’s acknowledgment
• Gratitude is most powerful in complex emotional landscapes, not perfect ones
• Self-directed appreciation calms the nervous system and supports resilience
• A gentle daily ritual can anchor gratitude into your body, not just your thoughts
• “Gratitude and grief can coexist” and often must, especially during the holidays

Hi, I’m Heather Hester, and I’m so glad you’re here!

Feeling uncertain or overwhelmed? Stay informed - visit my website

Join the Conversation on Substack

Read my book, Parenting with Pride.

Support the Show - Learn more here!

Watch on YouTube

Listen * Share * Review *NEW* episodes every Tuesday and Friday!

This is a place to feel messy while you're figuring it out.

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 grow their capacity for courageous connection.

For parents, allies, and those pioneering a way to lead with love and kindness, I’m here with true, messy, and heartwarming 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 on this journey with me.

More Human. More Kind. formerly Just Breathe: Parenting Your LGBTQ Teen is a safe and supportive podcast in a heartfelt and empowering space where a mom and advocate offers the wisdom of lived experience and practical guidance and education to parents and allies, teaching empathy, kindness, love, and strong boundaries while supporting LGBTQ teens and the diverse LGBTQ community, including gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, transgender, and queer individuals, through conversations about mental health, grief, gender identity, sexual orientation, human rights, social justice, parenting, parent support, and meaningful LGBTQ allyship and allyship in action.

1. UC Davis Gratitude Research (Emmons & McCullough, 2003)

The foundational study demonstrates that regular gratitude practice increases optimism, improves sleep, and enhances overall well-being.

2. Harvard Health Review (2022) – “Giving Thanks Can Make You Happier”

Outlines how self-directed gratitude — including compassion toward oneself — amplifies emotional regulation and resilience.

3. Greater Good Science Center – Gratitude Articles & Practices

A collection of short, accessible research-based tools for cultivating both interpersonal and self-directed gratitude. (greatergood.berkeley.edu)

4. Book: Living in Gratitude by Angeles Arrien

An elegant, spiritual framework for understanding gratitude not as a ritual, but as a lifelong practice.

Are you constantly jumping in with advice only to feel more disconnected from the people you love?

Whether you're navigating hard conversations with your LGBTQ+ teen or sitting down at a tense holiday dinner, the urge to "fix" is often fear in disguise. In this calming and powerful solo episode, Heather Hester unpacks why real connection doesn’t come from solving but from seeing.

✔️ Learn a simple, science-backed practice to shift from reactivity to presence

✔️ Discover how to listen without rushing, rescuing, or retreating

✔️ Use Heather’s LISTEN method to guide any difficult conversation with love

✔️ Get grounded tools to calm your nervous system when tensions rise

Press play now to discover the one shift that builds trust, deepens relationships, and reclaims connection, no fixing required.

• L – Leave space: Breathe before responding
• I – Inquire gently: Ask what kind of support is needed
• S – Stay curious: Reflect, don’t assume
• T – Trust the silence: Let quiet be part of connection
• E – Empathize, don’t evaluate: Say “That sounds really hard”
• N – Normalize not knowing: “I don’t have the answer, but I’m here.”

Hi, I’m Heather Hester, and I’m so glad you’re here!

Feeling uncertain or overwhelmed? Stay informed - visit my website

Join the Conversation on Substack

Read my book, Parenting with Pride.

Support the Show - Learn more here!

Watch on YouTube

Listen * Share * Review *NEW* episodes every Tuesday and Friday!

This is a place to feel messy while you're figuring it out.

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 grow their capacity for courageous connection.

For parents, allies, and those pioneering a way to lead with love and kindness, I’m here with true, messy, and heartwarming 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 on this journey with me.

More Human. More Kind. formerly Just Breathe: Parenting Your LGBTQ Teen is a safe and supportive podcast in a heartfelt and empowering space where a mom and advocate offers the wisdom of lived experience and practical guidance and education to parents and allies, teaching empathy, kindness, love, and strong boundaries while supporting LGBTQ teens and the diverse LGBTQ community, including gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, transgender, and queer individuals, through conversations about mental health, grief, gender identity, sexual orientation, human rights, social justice, parenting, parent support, and meaningful LGBTQ allyship and allyship in action.

When your child comes out or shares something vulnerable do you freeze, fumble, or fear saying the wrong thing?

Whether it’s about gender, sexuality, faith, or mental health, what your child is really asking in that moment is, “Can I trust you?” In this essential episode, Heather Hester shares the neuroscience, parenting wisdom, and personal stories behind why believing your child, even without full understanding, can literally save lives.

✔️ Learn 8 powerful tools to communicate belief, safety, and love even when you’re still learning

✔️ Discover how trauma-informed parenting strengthens your child's mental health and self-worth

✔️ Hear why “I believe you” is more powerful than any answer you could give

✔️ Let go of the myth that support requires full comprehension

Identity doesn't need your permission to exist

Press play now to learn how to meet your child’s truth with trust, not fear, and why your belief may be the very bridge that keeps your connection (and their well-being) alive.

1. Belief doesn’t require full understanding, it requires trust and presence.
2. LGBTQ+ youth with one accepting adult are 40% less likely to attempt suicide.
3. Pause before reacting: Your calm nervous system is the safety signal your child needs.
4. Curiosity over correction is key: Replace “Are you sure?” with “Tell me more.”
5. Repair matters more than perfection; own your mistakes with grace and keep growing.
6. Every affirming act, like using their name or pronouns, tells your child: “You are safe with me.”

Hi, I’m Heather Hester, and I’m so glad you’re here!

Feeling uncertain or overwhelmed? Stay informed - visit my website

Join the Conversation on Substack

Read my book, Parenting with Pride.

Support the Show - Learn more here!

Watch on YouTube

Listen * Share * Review *NEW* episodes every Tuesday and Friday!

This is a place to feel messy while you're figuring it out.

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 grow their capacity for courageous connection.

For parents, allies, and those pioneering a way to lead with love and kindness, I’m here with true, messy, and heartwarming 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 on this journey with me.

More Human. More Kind. formerly Just Breathe: Parenting Your LGBTQ Teen is a safe and supportive podcast in a heartfelt and empowering space where a mom and advocate offers the wisdom of lived experience and practical guidance and education to parents and allies, teaching empathy, kindness, love, and strong boundaries while supporting LGBTQ teens and the diverse LGBTQ community, including gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, transgender, and queer individuals, through conversations about mental health, grief, gender identity, sexual orientation, human rights, social justice, parenting, parent support, and meaningful LGBTQ allyship and allyship in action.

Are you overwhelmed by the speed, noise, and pressure of the season and craving a moment of genuine connection?

In a world obsessed with performance and big gestures, we often forget the transformative power of the quiet, small moments: eye contact, a text, a name used correctly. Heather shares how these micro-moments of humanity can reset our nervous systems and ripple out more powerfully than we realize, especially for parents and allies of LGBTQ+ kids.

✔️ Discover how small acts of kindness affect the brain and body in measurable, healing ways

✔️ Learn a 3-step daily ritual to bring more presence, empathy, and grounding into your life

✔️ Understand why tiny affirming behaviors are life-saving for LGBTQ+ youth

✔️ Challenge the myth that if it’s not big, it doesn’t matter

Press play now to reconnect with what really matters: being human, being kind, and being here.

What if kindness wasn't about being noticed, but about noticing? This simple shift in intention can change the way we parent, partner, and participate in the world.

Hi, I’m Heather Hester, and I’m so glad you’re here!

Feeling uncertain or overwhelmed? Stay informed - visit my website

Join the Conversation on Substack

Read my book, Parenting with Pride.

Support the Show - Learn more here!

Watch on YouTube

Listen * Share * Review *NEW* episodes every Tuesday and Friday!

This is a place to feel messy while you're figuring it out.

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 grow their capacity for courageous connection.

For parents, allies, and those pioneering a way to lead with love and kindness, I’m here with true, messy, and heartwarming 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 on this journey with me.

More Human. More Kind. formerly Just Breathe: Parenting Your LGBTQ Teen is a safe and supportive podcast in a heartfelt and empowering space where a mom and advocate offers the wisdom of lived experience and practical guidance and education to parents and allies, teaching empathy, kindness, love, and strong boundaries while supporting LGBTQ teens and the diverse LGBTQ community, including gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, transgender, and queer individuals, through conversations about mental health, grief, gender identity, sexual orientation, human rights, social justice, parenting, parent support, and meaningful LGBTQ allyship and allyship in action.

BOUNUS Interview Episode!

What if empathy wasn’t something you had to be born with but something you practiced, moment by moment?

In today’s bonus episode, Heather sits down with Maria Gallucci, a CODA, LGBTQ+ parent, bestselling author, and fierce advocate for underrepresented voices. Her story will challenge how you think about empathy, identity, and belonging, and might just change how you show up in the world.

• Hear how growing up in a deaf family taught Maria the power of nonverbal communication, deep listening, and compassion
• Understand the emotional impact of being believed when coming out as LGBTQ+
• Learn why “just trying” can change someone’s entire day
• Discover how inclusive schools, small gestures, and language access ripple into lifelong healing

Press play now to hear Maria’s powerful story and walk away with renewed commitment to connection over perfection.

Buy Raised In Silence

Learn more about Maria's work

Hi, I’m Heather Hester, and I’m so glad you’re here!

Feeling uncertain or overwhelmed? Stay informed - visit my website

Join the Conversation on Substack

Read my book, Parenting with Pride.

Support the Show - Learn more here!

Watch on YouTube

Listen * Share * Review *NEW* episodes every Tuesday and Friday!

This is a place to feel messy while you're figuring it out.

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 grow their capacity for courageous connection.

For parents, allies, and those pioneering a way to lead with love and kindness, I’m here with true, messy, and heartwarming 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 on this journey with me.

More Human. More Kind. formerly Just Breathe: Parenting Your LGBTQ Teen is a safe and supportive podcast in a heartfelt and empowering space where a mom and advocate offers the wisdom of lived experience and practical guidance and education to parents and allies, teaching empathy, kindness, love, and strong boundaries while supporting LGBTQ teens and the diverse LGBTQ community, including gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, transgender, and queer individuals, through conversations about mental health, grief, gender identity, sexual orientation, human rights, social justice, parenting, parent support, and meaningful LGBTQ allyship and allyship in action.

What if the most radical thing we can be right now is fully, imperfectly human and deeply, fiercely kind?

In this foundational episode of More Human, More Kind, host Heather Hester pulls back the curtain on the heart of the podcast and the movement behind it. Born out of advocacy for LGBTQ+ youth and expanded into a space for universal healing, this episode outlines the four pillars that guide every conversation: curiosity, compassion, courage, and connection.

Whether you're a parent raising brave kids, an LGBTQ+ ally, or simply someone navigating life in a divided, demanding world, this episode is both a gentle guide and a powerful call to action.

• Learn the 4 foundational pillars of being more human and more kind and why they matter now more than ever
• Hear how these principles can transform how you parent, lead, love, and heal
• Understand why kindness is not weakness, and how to pair it with boundaries to build trust and courage
• Receive real-life practices for choosing empathy, curiosity, and connection even in conflict or fear

In a world that rewards perfection and punishes vulnerability, kindness has become a revolutionary act. This episode reminds us that being human isn’t about being flawless, it’s about being real, present, and willing to keep showing up. Especially when it’s hard.

And for parents of LGBTQ+ kids, or anyone committed to true allyship, this is how we change the emotional climate one conversation, one breath, one brave act of empathy at a time.

This week’s kindness challenge:

Think of someone who's been a quiet, steady presence in your life, a friend, teacher, barista, coworker, and send them a note or voice memo that simply says:

Hi, I’m Heather Hester, and I’m so glad you’re here!

Feeling uncertain or overwhelmed? Stay informed - visit my website

Join the Conversation on Substack

Read my book, Parenting with Pride.

Support the Show - Learn more here!

Watch on YouTube

Listen * Share * Review *NEW* episodes every Tuesday and Friday!

This is a place to feel messy while you're figuring it out.

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 grow their capacity for courageous connection.

For parents, allies, and those pioneering a way to lead with love and kindness, I’m here with true, messy, and heartwarming 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 on this journey with me.

Book: Atlas of the Heart by Brené Brown - exploring the language of compassion

Podcast: The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos (Episode: “The Power of Tiny Connections”)

Book: Born to Be Good by Dacher Keltner — the science of compassion.

Study: Epley & Schroeder, “Mistakenly Seeking Solitude,” Journal of Experimental Psychology (2018).

Research: Barbara Fredrickson, “Love 2.0” (UNC, 2013) — the biology of micro-moments of connection.

More Human. More Kind. formerly Just Breathe: Parenting Your LGBTQ Teen is a safe and supportive podcast in a heartfelt and empowering space where a mom and advocate offers the wisdom of lived experience and practical guidance and education to parents and allies, teaching empathy, kindness, love, and strong boundaries while supporting LGBTQ teens and the diverse LGBTQ community, including gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, transgender, and queer individuals, through conversations about mental health, grief, gender identity, sexual orientation, human rights, social justice, parenting, parent support, and meaningful LGBTQ allyship and allyship in action.

What if love was never meant to be earned, just allowed?

In this powerful and tender episode of More Human, More Kind, Heather Hester invites you to examine the stories you carry about love, especially the ones you learned before you even had the words to question them. Through science, psychology, and personal reflection, she explores how childhood attachment patterns shape our adult definitions of love and how to rewrite those stories with compassion, curiosity, and conscious parenting.

Whether you're an LGBTQ+ ally, a parent trying to raise emotionally healthy kids, or someone healing from conditional or weaponized love, this episode is an invitation to stop performing for love and start remembering what real, safe, expansive love actually feels like.

• Understand how your earliest relationships shaped your attachment style and love blueprint
• Learn how to identify the old stories that tell you love requires sacrifice, silence, or suffering
• Get practical tools to begin repairing your relationship with love through journaling, micro-moments of self-compassion, and nervous system care
• Reflect on how to model secure, respectful, and inclusive love for yourself, your children, and the people you care about most

Many of us, especially LGBTQ+ individuals and parents, were taught that love means staying no matter the cost. But love that asks you to disappear isn’t love. It’s survival.

Real love makes room for truth, safety, and freedom and when we unlearn fear-based attachment, we become better allies, better parents, and more whole humans.

"The future version of me will thank me for..."

or

"I'm learning to speak to myself like..."

Write it. Read it aloud. Let it be your new evidence of love.

Press play now to begin unlearning fear-based love and to tap into what it feels like to be loved without condition.

Hi, I’m Heather Hester, and I’m so glad you’re here!

Feeling uncertain or overwhelmed? Stay informed - visit my website

Join the Conversation on Substack

Read my book, Parenting with Pride.

Support the Show - Learn more here!

Watch on YouTube

Listen * Share * Review *NEW* episodes every Tuesday and Friday!

This is a place to feel messy while you're figuring it out.

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 grow their capacity for courageous connection.

For parents, allies, and those pioneering a way to lead with love and kindness, I’m here with true, messy, and heartwarming 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 on this journey with me.

Resource Spotlight

Book: All About Love by bell hooks — foundational wisdom on redefining love as an active choice.

Research: Dr. Kristin Neff, Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself (HarperCollins, 2011).

Therapy Resource: Attachment Theory in Practice by Dr. Sue Johnson — how early bonding shapes our adult relationships.

Study: Barbara Fredrickson, “Love 2.0” (University of North Carolina, 2013) — the science of micro-moments of love.

Book: How We Love by Milan & Kay Yerkovich

Podcast Episode: “Healing the Inner Child” – Unlocking Us with Brené Brown

More Human. More Kind. formerly Just Breathe: Parenting Your LGBTQ Teen is a safe and supportive podcast in a heartfelt and empowering space where a mom and advocate offers the wisdom of lived experience and practical guidance and education to parents and allies, teaching empathy, kindness, love, and strong boundaries while supporting LGBTQ teens and the diverse LGBTQ community, including gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, transgender, and queer individuals, through conversations about mental health, grief, gender identity, sexual orientation, human rights, social justice, parenting, parent support, and meaningful LGBTQ allyship and allyship in action.

What if the thing that hurt you most was disguised as love?

In this emotionally honest and deeply necessary episode of More Human, More Kind, Heather Hester invites you to explore one of the most painful and liberating truths: that not all love is safe, and some of it was never love to begin with.

As parents, LGBTQ allies, and humans trying to live with more empathy and intention, we often confuse care with control, especially if we were taught that love must hurt to mean something. But when affection becomes a means of compliance, when support comes with shame, silence, or fear, that’s not love, that’s leverage.

Whether you’re heading into a holiday season with complicated family dynamics, supporting an LGBTQ+ child, or healing from your own past, this episode offers language, insight, and tools to reclaim what love should feel like: free, safe, and human.

• Learn how to recognize the signs of weaponized love, especially the subtle ways it shows up as care or concern
• Explore the difference between conditional love, tough love, and real love and why that difference matters
• Hear the neuroscience behind secure attachment, emotional safety, and the power of respect
• Receive 4 steps to redefine love on your terms and begin healing your relationship with giving and receiving it
• Understand how this shows up in parenting, religion, family systems, and why LGBTQ+ youth are especially at risk of internalizing control as care

Love is one of our most powerful tools, but when it’s used to shame, silence, or manipulate, it becomes one of the most dangerous. As an LGBTQ+ ally, a parent, or a cycle-breaker, understanding this distinction is essential for healing and protection.

Because real love doesn’t demand you disappear, it helps you become more of yourself.

Press play to begin healing from love that harmed and to rediscover what real, human, and kind love can feel like, starting with how you speak to yourself.

Hi, I’m Heather Hester, and I’m so glad you’re here!

Feeling uncertain or overwhelmed? Stay informed - visit my website

Join the Conversation on Substack

Read my book, Parenting with Pride.

Support the Show - Learn more here!

Watch on YouTube

Listen * Share * Review *NEW* episodes every Tuesday and Friday!

This is a place to feel messy while you're figuring it out.

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 grow their capacity for courageous connection.

For parents, allies, and those pioneering a way to lead with love and kindness, I’m here with true, messy, and heartwarming 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 on this journey with me.

Book: All About Love by bell hooks

Article: “Weaponized Love: When Care Becomes Control” (Psychology Today, 2024

Helpline: The Trevor Project — 24/7 support for LGBTQ+ youth (thetrevorproject.org)

Brené Brown (2021) writes that “Love without boundaries is not love at all — it’s a recipe for resentment.”

Research from the University of Toronto (Fehr & Sprecher, 2009) found that mutual respect and autonomy were stronger predictors of long-term relational satisfaction than affection alone.

More Human. More Kind. formerly Just Breathe: Parenting Your LGBTQ Teen is a safe and supportive podcast in a heartfelt and empowering space where a mom and advocate offers the wisdom of lived experience and practical guidance and education to parents and allies, teaching empathy, kindness, love, and strong boundaries while supporting LGBTQ teens and the diverse LGBTQ community, including gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, transgender, and queer individuals, through conversations about mental health, grief, gender identity, sexual orientation, human rights, social justice, parenting, parent support, and meaningful LGBTQ allyship and allyship in action.

What if the quirks, questions, and beautiful edges your LGBTQ child expresses aren’t something to fix, but something to fiercely celebrate? This Halloween, we’re flipping the script on fear and reframing what it really means to embrace “the strange.”

So many parents and allies want to support their LGBTQ kids but struggle with the discomfort of difference, especially when it challenges how we were raised or what society tells us is “normal.” In this heartfelt episode, Heather explores how inclusion, identity, and empathy begin at home. You’ll learn why “normal” is a social construct, how fear of difference is rooted in old systems of control, and why allyship means choosing curiosity over conformity.

If you’re a parent who wants to build real emotional safety for your LGBTQ child, this episode gives you practical guidance on how to shift your mindset and create everyday rituals that affirm identity and deepen connection. You’ll hear powerful tools rooted in love, parenting with empathy, and the radical social justice act of letting kids show up as their full selves.

Whether your child is exploring gender, embracing a unique style, or just seems a little “different,” you’ll learn how to meet them with love, not fear, and why your courage to embrace the strange can unlock healing for you both.

Press play to:

• Reframe “strange” as strength and self-expression
• Learn why fear of difference is a learned response and how to unlearn it
• Gain tools to build inclusion, emotional safety, and lasting trust in your parenting
• Discover how Halloween can be a metaphor for real-world allyship

Hi, I’m Heather Hester, and I’m so glad you’re here!

Feeling uncertain or overwhelmed? Stay informed - visit my website

Join the Conversation on Substack

Read my book, Parenting with Pride.

Support the Show - Learn more here!

Watch on YouTube

Listen * Share * Review *NEW* episodes every Tuesday and Friday!

This is a place to feel messy while you're figuring it out.

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 grow their capacity for courageous connection.

For parents, allies, and those pioneering a way to lead with love and kindness, I’m here with true, messy, and heartwarming 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 on this journey with me.

More Human. More Kind. formerly Just Breathe: Parenting Your LGBTQ Teen is a safe and supportive podcast in a heartfelt and empowering space where a mom and advocate offers the wisdom of lived experience and practical guidance and education to parents and allies, teaching empathy, kindness, love, and strong boundaries while supporting LGBTQ teens and the diverse LGBTQ community, including gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, transgender, and queer individuals, through conversations about mental health, grief, gender identity, sexual orientation, human rights, social justice, parenting, parent support, and meaningful LGBTQ allyship and allyship in action.

Books & Articles:

• Brené Brown, Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone (2017).
• Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider (1984).
• bell hooks, All About Love (2000).
• Roxane Gay, “The Case for Weirdness” (New York Times, 2020).
• Adam Grant, Originals: How Nonconformists Move the World (2016).
• The Atlantic, “The Perils of Pursuing ‘Normal’” (2022).

For Parents and Educators:

• PFLAG National: “How to Talk to Kids About Identity.”
• GLSEN: Inclusive Schools Toolkit.
• Teaching Tolerance: “Breaking the Myth of Normal.”

LGBTQ+ History Month isn’t just a celebration of the past; it’s a warning about the present. With over 600 anti-LGBTQ+ bills in play, what will you do to protect what truly matters?

In this powerful episode, Heather Hester walks you through key moments in LGBTQ+ history, from Stonewall to marriage equality, and connects them to the rising threats queer youth face today. You’ll gain tools, context, and confidence to speak up when it matters most.

Learn how to help your kids connect past and present, recognize the patterns of oppression, and feel empowered to resist them. Discover what real allyship looks like today and why silence isn’t neutral.

Press play to turn heartbreak into action and hope into power.

Hi, I’m Heather Hester, and I’m so glad you’re here!

Feeling uncertain or overwhelmed? Stay informed - visit my website

Join the Conversation on Substack

Read my book, Parenting with Pride.

Support the Show - Learn more here!

Watch on YouTube

Listen * Share * Review *NEW* episodes every Tuesday and Friday!

This is a place to feel messy while you're figuring it out.

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 grow their capacity for courageous connection.

For parents, allies, and those pioneering a way to lead with love and kindness, I’m here with true, messy, and heartwarming 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 on this journey with me.

More Human. More Kind. formerly Just Breathe: Parenting Your LGBTQ Teen is a safe and supportive podcast in a heartfelt and empowering space where a mom and advocate offers the wisdom of lived experience and practical guidance and education to parents and allies, teaching empathy, kindness, love, and strong boundaries while supporting LGBTQ teens and the diverse LGBTQ community, including gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, transgender, and queer individuals, through conversations about mental health, grief, gender identity, sexual orientation, human rights, social justice, parenting, parent support, and meaningful LGBTQ allyship and allyship in action.

Historical Foundations

• Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution – David Carter (2004).
• How to Survive a Plague – David France (2016).
• The Celluloid Closet – Vito Russo (1981).
• When We Rise – Cleve Jones (2016).

Modern Reports & Data

• ACLU, “Mapping Attacks on LGBTQ Rights in U.S. State Legislatures” (2024).
• PEN America, “Banned in the USA: The Growing Movement to Censor Books in Schools” (2023).
• The Trevor Project, 2023 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health.
• GLAAD, Accelerating Acceptance Survey (2024).

Films & Documentaries

• The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson (Netflix, 2017).
• Milk (2008).
• Disclosure (Netflix, 2020).
• Paris Is Burning (1990).

Educational Tools for Parents

• Teaching Tolerance: “LGBTQ History Month Resources.”
• Human Rights Campaign: “Timeline of LGBTQ History.”
• PFLAG National: Parent guides and allyship toolkits.