Sunshine
Good News EveryoneI am genuinely surprised to find that MIT was so inflexible in this matter. This has damaged their image.
How long until their family sees that money and tries to "patch things up".
I have a lot of experience with disownings and can say they usually last 3 years tops. Most parents realize that going no contact over something like this is hurting them too and isn't changing their child's behavior and so they start to learn and while they may not become supportive, they do attempt to renormalize relations.
That said, some like my father, are more stubborn than parental.
This only happens long after the child has become homeless and has experienced severe trauma that will never heal. I speak from personal experience.
Well of course. They don't get back in touch because their child is suffering, they get back in touch because they're unhappy not being in their child's life.
I know nobody here is going to read this and then consider disowning their kid for being trans (or otherwise queer), but if by some off chance it happens or if someone reading this is a trusted figure to someone in that position:
If you disown your child you may regain some trust, you may regain some love, you may not, you may not be welcome back in their life ever again, and I've never met someone who loved or trusted their parents as much as they did before disowning after reconciliation. And staying away without trying just keeps raising the hurt (10 years and I still wish my father would reach out and apologize).
If you can't accept your child coming out, look up pflag chapters in your area. They offer specific counseling for parents struggling with their child's queerness, those counselors often have been on one side or the other of that situation and you can request someone who's been in a position that you feel is better for you. I used to do it, they're volunteers who are there to listen and who understand that it can be very difficult. What they want is for your family to stay together and loving. They will work with you to help you with that, for free, and you can even use a fake name or an alias or not give one. You can destroy/damage your child's relationship with you forever, or you can learn to love who they are.
Sorry about the rant. A lot of people don't understand the long term consequences of stuff like this and they don't understand that there is help and while it is biased, it genuinely does want families to not be broken by bigotry. I should probably go volunteer with pflag doing that again.
