Insights and discussions from the recent Genspect conference, where professionals gathered to deepen understanding of gender dysphoria and evolving implications in clinical practice and in society
After attending the Denver and Lisbon Genspect conferences, meeting you briefly, listening to all the podcasts of Gender: A Wider Lens, reading your book, and being inspired to write my own book, I must give my sincere thanks. You are stedfast in your focus, graceful in a hotbed of controversy, and you remain rational, compassionate and grounded.
This overview of the Lisbon conference is excellent, as was the conference itself.
As a parent of a trans-identified, medicalized adult child, I give voice to parents and also say, don't forget the twenty-something kids who check all the boxes of vulnerability and get swept up into gender ideology and medicalization. These older kids need protections and comprehensive care too.
Just because my kid is over 18 doesn't mean that altering her body to try and fix mental and emotional issues is okay. My daughter's breasts, now gone, were not the problem!
Please keep writing, interviewing diverse individuals on your podcast, and hosting conferences. By the way, where and when in the next conference?
Thank you very much, your words mean the world to me. I agree with you about the over 18. At Genspect our focus is “children and vulnerable adults” as harmful interventions are harmful, it doesn’t matter what age they occur.
Stella this is so well written, thank you. As a parent of a late transitioning son I really appreciate the first paragraph. You really nail the experience of parents of adult transitioners who are now in exile. Such angst and pain and loneliness we feel. Thank you.
Me too, I haven't seen my son in over 2 years. I just adored him and I miss him so much. My heart is broken and now I even am having heart issues. How has this happened? Can't talk to any of my family about it. We feel so isolated. Grateful for the parent communities that have sprung up but so very, very sad for all of us.
“At Genspect we view medical transition as some might view functioning alcoholism, functioning anorexia or functioning OCD – extremely difficult on everyone around the individual and often a self-made prison for the individual. There are much healthier ways to relieve dysphoria than medical transition.” I fully resonated with this, both during one of your talks at the conference and now in writing.
It's so nice to read your insights from the Lisbon conference and I love how you all show up at the same time and place as WPATH, and AAP conference happening in Florida too, sheesh! Stella, you must still be recovering from that big weekend--you are an inspiration. Livestreaming it from Seattle was it's own kind of adventure with the time difference, but being a part of it even in that way felt important and meaningful. Our family is fine (our children have been raised screenfree) but we had to remove our kids from a private school that we thought we could trust. One of my sons classmates dads decided he wanted to be called mom and started dressing the part. His wife seems to be going along with it for now but their son has stopped smiling (he told his class that he was the only boy in his family now)--so has his little sister--all the while the school staff praises and celebrates his dads new name and appearance in the name of DEI. The area we live in feels like Mecca for this whole scandal that unfortunately prompts lots of conversations with our kids that we never thought we would need to have. My husband and I feel like we have been hoodwinked by the "progressives" and have since then become experts on this harmful ideology. I'm a Gender Nerd too;-) Truth is our "North Star"! We run a Facebook group for parents of ROGD children that has over 200 members now. We provide them with resources and updates we get from Genspect, A Wider Lens, Partners for Ethical Care, Do No Harm and all the rest;-) One of the things, out of many, that has stood out for me is when Dr. Carrie Mendoza said something about how in her E.R. in the inner city Chicago area, that there wasn't time for getting caught up in the gender stuff. She said the ideology nonsense would be weeded out pretty fast because there were so many other urgent and important life-saving matters going on. Being a big picture thinker, it seemed like there could be an answer in that on how to roll back this mess and bring the captured back to reality. I just haven't put my finger on it yet. Also, watching conference clips, I wondered about Alastair Gunn and how he was doing. His time with you all at the Killarney Genspect meeting seemed so impactful and I had hopes he would make an appearance - sending warm healing thoughts for him. Thank you for all you do! Be well and I look forward to keeping up on the latest.
Thank you. I think the children of Transitioners are an under-recognised cohort and I’m so glad that Emma Thomas is giving this issue some much needed sunlight.
So many minefields it makes me giddy at times, but then I look at how far "we've" come and give thanks to you and those that have been steadfast in the face of raging mobs, from all sides, because you won't denounce and cast out those you don't agree with.
We don't want to become as cultish as those we are facing and when we stop listening to the unreasonable we start to get deaf to reason and I really want to see my daughter again one day, so cannot draw as deep and as red a line as others.
This feels like the beginning of an end, and now more than ever we have to hold the line for parents who are more conflicted than any others in this. Thanks for everything Stella.
After attending the Denver and Lisbon Genspect conferences, meeting you briefly, listening to all the podcasts of Gender: A Wider Lens, reading your book, and being inspired to write my own book, I must give my sincere thanks. You are stedfast in your focus, graceful in a hotbed of controversy, and you remain rational, compassionate and grounded.
This overview of the Lisbon conference is excellent, as was the conference itself.
As a parent of a trans-identified, medicalized adult child, I give voice to parents and also say, don't forget the twenty-something kids who check all the boxes of vulnerability and get swept up into gender ideology and medicalization. These older kids need protections and comprehensive care too.
Just because my kid is over 18 doesn't mean that altering her body to try and fix mental and emotional issues is okay. My daughter's breasts, now gone, were not the problem!
Please keep writing, interviewing diverse individuals on your podcast, and hosting conferences. By the way, where and when in the next conference?
Thank you very much, your words mean the world to me. I agree with you about the over 18. At Genspect our focus is “children and vulnerable adults” as harmful interventions are harmful, it doesn’t matter what age they occur.
Stella this is so well written, thank you. As a parent of a late transitioning son I really appreciate the first paragraph. You really nail the experience of parents of adult transitioners who are now in exile. Such angst and pain and loneliness we feel. Thank you.
Thank you. It’s such a horrible experience for parents. I wish it wasn’t happening xx
Me too, I haven't seen my son in over 2 years. I just adored him and I miss him so much. My heart is broken and now I even am having heart issues. How has this happened? Can't talk to any of my family about it. We feel so isolated. Grateful for the parent communities that have sprung up but so very, very sad for all of us.
“At Genspect we view medical transition as some might view functioning alcoholism, functioning anorexia or functioning OCD – extremely difficult on everyone around the individual and often a self-made prison for the individual. There are much healthier ways to relieve dysphoria than medical transition.” I fully resonated with this, both during one of your talks at the conference and now in writing.
It's so nice to read your insights from the Lisbon conference and I love how you all show up at the same time and place as WPATH, and AAP conference happening in Florida too, sheesh! Stella, you must still be recovering from that big weekend--you are an inspiration. Livestreaming it from Seattle was it's own kind of adventure with the time difference, but being a part of it even in that way felt important and meaningful. Our family is fine (our children have been raised screenfree) but we had to remove our kids from a private school that we thought we could trust. One of my sons classmates dads decided he wanted to be called mom and started dressing the part. His wife seems to be going along with it for now but their son has stopped smiling (he told his class that he was the only boy in his family now)--so has his little sister--all the while the school staff praises and celebrates his dads new name and appearance in the name of DEI. The area we live in feels like Mecca for this whole scandal that unfortunately prompts lots of conversations with our kids that we never thought we would need to have. My husband and I feel like we have been hoodwinked by the "progressives" and have since then become experts on this harmful ideology. I'm a Gender Nerd too;-) Truth is our "North Star"! We run a Facebook group for parents of ROGD children that has over 200 members now. We provide them with resources and updates we get from Genspect, A Wider Lens, Partners for Ethical Care, Do No Harm and all the rest;-) One of the things, out of many, that has stood out for me is when Dr. Carrie Mendoza said something about how in her E.R. in the inner city Chicago area, that there wasn't time for getting caught up in the gender stuff. She said the ideology nonsense would be weeded out pretty fast because there were so many other urgent and important life-saving matters going on. Being a big picture thinker, it seemed like there could be an answer in that on how to roll back this mess and bring the captured back to reality. I just haven't put my finger on it yet. Also, watching conference clips, I wondered about Alastair Gunn and how he was doing. His time with you all at the Killarney Genspect meeting seemed so impactful and I had hopes he would make an appearance - sending warm healing thoughts for him. Thank you for all you do! Be well and I look forward to keeping up on the latest.
Thank you. I think the children of Transitioners are an under-recognised cohort and I’m so glad that Emma Thomas is giving this issue some much needed sunlight.
So many minefields it makes me giddy at times, but then I look at how far "we've" come and give thanks to you and those that have been steadfast in the face of raging mobs, from all sides, because you won't denounce and cast out those you don't agree with.
We don't want to become as cultish as those we are facing and when we stop listening to the unreasonable we start to get deaf to reason and I really want to see my daughter again one day, so cannot draw as deep and as red a line as others.
This feels like the beginning of an end, and now more than ever we have to hold the line for parents who are more conflicted than any others in this. Thanks for everything Stella.
That’s really lovely, thanks. I hope you and yours daughter have the reconciliation you deserve. Xxx