In many ways, your kids and mine are growing up in a different world than we did.

One of the areas that has changed the most dramatically, is how we understand gender and sexuality.

In real life, and in social media, books, and movies, kids see others “come out” and talk about–or just simply express–their sexual orientation, identity, or gender. There is more acceptance, openness, and candor with these topics that did not exist just a few years ago.

Do you ever wonder what your kids know about gender and sexual orientation? Or wonder how to talk to them about it?

Maybe you’ve heard some new terminology–gender fluid, non-binary, cis, and pansexual, etc.–and wondered what it all means.

Maybe you’ve thought, “I’m pretty sure my child is ‘straight’ do we even need to talk about any of this?”

When so much has changed about gender and sexuality, how do we teach and guide our kids through their childhood and adolescence and support their development?

These questions, and others, are why we wanted to talk to Jo Langford. Jo is a therapist and sex educator for tweens and teens, and author of The Pride Guide, who works with kids and parents in the LGBTQ community.

We asked him what LGBT kids–and kids in general–want their parents to know.

And we asked Jo what to do if a parent gets flooded with emotion (fear, sadness, worry) if their child talks about their gender, sexuality, or “comes out” to them.

Watch here to see what he said. His answers might surprise you.