For my parents, basically I just have to be myself which means making "nontraditional" decisions about how to present myself and my body (short hair, tattoos, piercings) and also defending my right to make those decisions about my own body. Case in point, my dad told me last night I'd look better with longer hair (he saw/found out about my short hair for the first time) and I told him, without raising my voice, that what he likes isn't more important than what I like. Then he went to bed and didn't even talk to me this morning even when dropping me off at the airport.

Imagine telling someone what to do with their body and they're like "no" and you get all pissy and upset. That's basically what happened