Who funds Genspect?

Genspect has always operated on a tight budget. We would love to attract more funding, but until then, we intend to keep working diligently to seek resolutions that helps us out of the gender mess

The first time I saw someone on the internet ask ‘Who funds Genspect?’ I rolled my eyes and smiled wryly. The second time, my smile turned to a questioning frown. The third time I saw this question I thought, ‘Wow, I had better address this question.’

Up until fairly recently, I presumed that those who were following the money with regard to the trans phenomenon knew what they were doing. However, when it was suggested that Genspect is in receipt of large levels of funding, I realised - with disappointment - that the people who are supposed to be following the money don’t seem to be able to discern a fancy website from a well-funded organisation.  

Genspect has been existing on a very tight budget since we first launched in June 2021. The lion’s share of our income has come as a result of devastated parents donating to our organisation because they believe in our work and can see that our solution-focused approach is the most productive and valuable way forward. These parents seldom have any experience in  philanthropy and few have given large donations to anyone prior to this. Rather these parents have been plunged into a wretched nightmare as a result of a series of events that led one of their children to identify as trans. As they dove deep into this dark world, many parents came to the heart-stopping conclusion that a really dreadful and horrific medical scandal was taking advantage of neuro-diverse, socially awkward kids who deserved a lot better from the adults in the room.

The parents often feel like they are caught between two stools. They are afraid to affirm and afraid not to affirm. One side is paralysing them with heart-rending stories about kids who weren’t affirmed and the other side is terrifying them with the opposite narrative. Many parents appreciate Genspect because we don’t pretend to offer easy answers. We don’t dismiss the issue with over-simplified solutions such as ‘turn off the internet!’ The parents know their kids and they know the magnitude of their task. Turning off the internet is too little too late for the vast majority of these kids; it is only younger children or those who have not been submerged in the online trans world for very long who desist from a trans identity as a consequence of their parents turning off the internet.

For the rest of these young people, their trans-identification is often akin to an OCD-like trans rumination. Rationalising doesn’t work. Saying a hard ‘no’ doesn’t work either. These vulnerable kids have become obsessed with their identity in the very same way that the anorexic is obsessed with losing weight. It feels to the parents that they have joined a cult. Self-harm is a real and constant threat, used by their children as emotional blackmail to get what they want.

The online world is far from the ideal place to find nuance and a deep understanding of what it means to be a neurodiverse, self-loathing young person who believes they've found their one shot at happiness. X is unlikely to offer any resolution to the trans phenomenon. But resolution is what we need.

The internet has ensnared these kids in a whirlwind of false narratives. It is all too easy to ridicule these snowflakes as bratty idiots, typical of the TikTok generation. The truth is a good deal darker. These kids may come across as spoiled and overindulged brats but they are mentally ill and caught up in a cult-like phenomenon. Behind every blue-haired mess screaming on TikTok is often an anguished parent silently wringing her hands.

Girls on testosterone can be frighteningly aggressive and their temper tantrums often turn violent, on themselves and on their loved ones. The level of parental abuse that is happening among families who have been impacted by gender dysphoria remains an unacknowledged dark secret. The parents are devastated. They just want their kid back and they are clinging on by their fingernails to the relationship, afraid that if they let go they will never get it back.

Some of them don’t.

The main reason that parents value Genspect is that we are willing to confront this profoundly complex challenge. We don’t  simplify, we don’t blame the parents, we don’t pretend any of this is easy and we seek resolution. We work very hard to offer services that help people – we have hundreds of detransitioners on our books in Beyond Trans, and we have a corresponding Directory of Therapists to offer anyone who is seeking a therapist who prioritises a non-medicalised pathway and who denounces the medicalised pathway as offered by WPATH.  We also offer therapeutic support meetings, funding for individualised therapy and other supports such as legal webinars and life-skills support groups for anyone who has been harmed by medical transition. We offer help to nearly a thousand families in the Gender Dysphoria Support Network with roughly five online meetings running every week since 2020. ROGD is a dark and devastating tragedy that can only be truly understood if it hits your family and we are currently in the process of rolling out online meetings for bereaved parents as well as meetings for parents who feel suicidal.

We’re very pleased that other organisations in our sphere are very well-funded and we hope to attract more funding as time goes by. In the meantime we continue to work very hard to keep the ship afloat and we continue to do our fallible best at Genspect. Not to try would be unthinkable.

We don’t want to replace WPATH, as some people seem to believe. That is frankly an insane idea. WPATH advocates for the medicalisation of gender identitiy – Genspect does not accept this approach on any level. Instead we want to promote a non-medicalised, low- interventionist approach to gender identity. We advocate for a good deal less pathologisation of distress. We don’t think identities should be medicalised.

We have run two conferences so far (in Killarney, Ireland and Denver, USA) and we did this by charging a fee to cover the costs. Our next conference in Lisbon also comes with a cost but we believe it’s a fair price, considering the brilliant line-up of speakers as well as the large discounts we offer to Friends of Genspect and also the additional offer we make to anyone who is facing financial challenges. We also make sure to offer a range of other initiatives to ensure the engine keeps running. Recently we have started to offer Continuing Medical Education (CME) certificates to our content as another way to bring in funds. We also have an ongoing GoFundMe that began when we first launched. Some of our supporters offer recurring donations while others choose to make once-off donations, and we are extremely appreciative of any donations that come our way through this avenue.

I gather the chief reason why consipracy theorists believe that Genspect is well-funded and also believe that other organisations aren’t is because we were lucky enough to benefit from Alasdair Gunn’s extraordinary talent when we first launched so our website and our general vibe looked very polished and professional. Another reason why this rumour has been put about is that trans-activists are running a very clever campaign to damage us in any way they can. They recognise the threat we pose and they seek to ruin us. They have infiltrated GC groups and they encourage conspiracy theories among susceptible people. And sometimes it works.

The last main reason that people think we’re well-funded is that we do a huge amount of work. We’re proud of our work and we know it’s a consequence of an intensely committed and talented team who keep their heads down and always focus on the work in progress. Many, but not all, of our team are parents. The GDSN in particular is ran by volunteer parents who commit hundreds of unpaid hours to helping fellow parents. Others in Genspect us have been impacted by this dreadful phenomenon in ways that few can even imagine.

The Genspect team is committed to finding a way out of this dreadful mess because we know that creating further polarisation and distress doesn’t help anyone. We seek resolution and we think this will be achieved by offering fair and reasonable solutions. In the meantime, while we pursue this goal, we welcome any support that is offered and very much appreciate any criticism that is accurate and given in good faith.