Every 10th kid is born queer. If you don't know any queer kids and teenagers, that just means they are afraid to tell you. A person cannot change their orientation. Hiding it, fighting it, trying to change it creates extremely high levels of suicide among teenagers. Those are the kids and teenagers who think they are a nature's mistake or shamed for who they are — why do they have to go through it? I was among those teenagers who desperately tried to change who I love. Of course, it didn't work. Once I've found supportive people I could redirect all this energy to something good — studying, career, family, volunteering and helping others. I want to support people with similar experience. I want to tell them they are not alone, there are people who will accept and celebrate them. That is especially important for young minds who don't know that this is natural, that queerness exists in every country, every time period, and even among thousands of animal species. Imagine a world, where society doesn't tell kids and teenagers that they shouldn't exist because of who they love. That's what I am fighting for, and that's why I am making this project.

It is a humbling experience and an honor to be able to help, even in the smallest ways, to bring attention to the injustice that has become the norm for many. I was lucky in my life to have a mother who accepted me. I wish I could share with her the unity that these wonderful mothers have shown us. Unity in the face of adversity, small in numbers but strong in spirit. I am grateful to be a part of this. The voices of these women shall stay with me until the end of my life, and I hope they can be internalized in a similar way by children who were not as lucky as I was. And I hope that this tribe of motherly love shall only grow in the future.

I'm so grateful to this project for the opportunity to meet and interview the parents of queer children. I'm in awe of their strength and resilience. Many of them had to rethink their entire worldview and sacrifice their social connections to preserve a relationship with their child. Fortunately, they've found support and friendship not only in their kids, but in each other. They've fostered an amazingly welcoming and warm community. Today it's vitally important that people facing discrimination find and see each other, even and especially when it can be dangerous to be seen. I hope this project can become a safe opportunity for visibility and much needed dialogue about how our society treats difference.

While editing the interviews with mothers of gay children, I noticed that the word I heard most often was “love.” Hearing it again and again, from so many different women, moved me. As a gay person who came out as a teenager, I had always thought of coming out as my own story. I had never really considered what my mother might have had to understand and work through herself. This project made me see something I had never thought to look for.