The Unheard Stories of LGBTQ Teens

Throughout the writing, AIDS Inc. Helen Epstein emphasizes the idea of social cohesion. She states that social cohesion is “the tendency of people to talk openly with one another and form trusted relationships.” The idea of telling ones story and being open and honest about themselves is healthy and good for a community. In Anna Hallward’s The Unheard Stories of LGBTQ Teens safe space radio cast she plays a segment from an interview or a young transgender boy. He tells his story of how he and his mother had first talked about his feelings at the beginning of his transformation. After the young boy had attempted to kill him self his mother had taken him on a road trip with her to Boston. On the car ride there his mom started to ask him questions that made her uncomfortable and nervous at the time but was better for both of them in the long run. The young boy expressed his feelings and what he was going through to his mother and she understood him and backed him up. If he had not answered his mother honestly his mother may have never understood what he was going through. The idea of talking to one another about what they were thinking and feeling had saved their relationship and the boys life. This segment from the radio cast proves the positive effects that social cohesion has.