Welcome to Episode #62 of SEASON 7 of 'Sharing Life Lessons'.  A podcast that brings you stories from around the world to have fun with and to learn from because stories inspire, stories teach, and stories heal!!  We are one spirit; one soul and together we are creating a library of stories and life lessons.

To support the creation of this podcast please go to https://anchor.fm/sharinglifelessons and hit the support button with the dollar sign to sign up for a monthly subscription for an amount of your choice. This will enable me to continue to bring to you an enhanced season 6.

The target audience for this episode is EVERYONE, especially parents and family members of the LGBTQ+ community. Disclosure: The discussion is open, candid and graphic.

Our guest for today is Liam Paschall. Liam is a transgender man who has found immense power and pride in accepting the truth of who he is.  He is a passionate servant to the LGBTQ community with the ability to motivate and inspire others to live out loud. His goal is to be a voice to the voiceless and a beacon of hope to the hopeless.

He is a public speaker, facilitator, and diversity & inclusion consultant. He lives his life by this quote from Katherine Center – “You have to be brave with your life, so that others can be brave with theirs.”

You can follow Liam’s female to male transition journey in his blog, “Becoming Liam”. 

You can reach out to Liam through his Facebook page: (1) Liam Ashtyn Paschall | Facebook

My key takeaways from the discussion in this episode are as follows:

1. For parents who are encountering this situation in their lives, Liam’s message is: There's nothing that a parent could or couldn't do to make a child gay or lesbian or transgender. So don’t blame yourself for any of it. Instead, love and support your kids. Love them for who they are. Let them be who they are. Don't try to mold them into something you want them to be or something that you feel society expects them to be. Love them and let them be. What they are going through is not easy for them, which is why they need you now more than ever. Let’s go back to what Liam said in his story – the toughest part for him was to come out to his wife. From then on, coming out to friends and at work was easy because of the way his wife handled the situation. Coming out to parents is the hardest for your children and how they can handle their life from then on will truly be based on how you as parents handle their discussion with you.

2.  I want to pray and wish along with Liam, that maybe some day the LGBTQ plus community will not have to come out to anyone, just like the heterosexual community does not need to come out. Their being will be as normalized and included in our society as the being of any heterosexual person is.

3. For others: We have to be true to ourselves. We need to live life authentically. It will not always be easy - there will be fear of the unknown, of not knowing what will be on the other side, and of some people rejecting us but as Liam said - we will have the joy of being unapologetically and authentically ourselves.

I will bring you the next episode of Sharing Life Lessons next Wednesday. Until then, 'Be happy, be safe and be well'.

Podcast links:. Apple Podcasts:    https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sharing-life-lessons/id1495248815?uo=4

Spotify:     https://open.spotify.com/show/1EZMzRw1cWMyvSiyeeyTRd

Anchor.fm:     https://anchor.fm/sharinglifelessons

Amazon music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/e35e7f52-e169-47e0-885d-c9c656b7c422/SHARING-LIFE-LESSONS