Feature for the Washington Post magazine on the Mama Bears: a secret Facebook group, founded by Christian moms of LGBTQ+ kids, that helps parents learn to advocate for their queer children.

Kimberly Shappley, a Connecticut woman with a trans daughter, joined the Mama Bears in the early days, when it was “still very much centered on being Christian — otherwise, I wouldn’t have stayed in the group, to be honest,” she told me. Reading other Christian moms’ posts celebrating their queer kids was transformational for Shappley. “I had never been exposed to LGBTQ things in a way that wasn’t negative or derogatory,” she recalls. “And here were these people in the group presenting pictures of their children; their parents are proud of them and they’re going to college, and they have somebody they love.”

Illustration by Luis Mendo for the Washington Post