All children deserve (gender) affirmation

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Date of webinar: 12th August, 2024

The pathologisation and politicisation of trans children has positioned gender affirmation as something that only trans children seek, disregarding the various ways gender affirmation is something most people engage in, and fostering unnecessary anxieties. For example, fashion/uniforms, subject choice, extracurriculars, and music preferences are all sites of gender expression, and young people are often critically aware of how they are read. Moreover, children are witness to the adults around them crafting their genders every day, from makeup and hairstyles to what scents people wear.

Researchers discuss how there is a danger of singling queer and trans children out by positioning their needs as extraordinary, but this webinar demonstrates that all children deserve to be affirmed for who they are (while also acknowledging that we all need extraordinary care sometimes). This also leaves space for discussing why performing gender can be more costly for some, while others may feel that gender is irrelevant. Rather than a site of anxiety, Ampersand discusses how gender affirmation might become a space where teachers and students can unpack differences in the classroom and support all children to explore how they want to be in the world.

Dr Ampersand Pasley’s research involves co-designing trans-led sexuality education with trans secondary students in Aotearoa New Zealand. Their doctoral research explored trans secondary students’ educational worlds, which they are currently turning into a book. They are also co-editing a book on gender and education with Professors Susanne Gannon and Jayne Osgood, and a Knowledge Cultures special issue on ‘wrestling with (not) belonging’ with Dr Elba Ramirez and Associate Professor Sean Sturm. Ampersand’s work spans rainbow (young) people’s wellbeing, childhood studies, everyday sexisms in universities, time and temporality, coloniality, relational onto-epistemologies, and creative methodologies.

To help you navigate the webinar easily, there is a list of the key topics covered in the session below, including the time each was discussed. The key ideas discussed in this webinar are also shared in a short insight article.

Topics discussed in this webinar
1.35	An introduction to Ampersand’s research
4.08	Definitions and terms
7.52	What is gender affirmation?
17.20	Is it appropriate to limit the use of the concept of gender affirmation to trans young people?
22.29	How a more holistic reframing of gender affirmation can help to dispel anxiety around trans gender affirmation
31.43	How communities can help young people understand and express gender
38.48	How teachers can support students explore who they want to be in the world
46.24	Closing thoughts

Definition of terms as used in this webinar

Gender is understood as constructed and is not an inherent category. The word gender was invented in 1945 to refer to ‘psychological sex’ (Money, 1945), yet sex is also not binary and only became a social organising principle with Modern colonisation (Pasley, 2020). McKittrick (2021) calls this tying of constructed categories to sex characteristics a ‘biologizing narrative’ (see also heterosexual matrix; Butler, 1990).

Gender dysphoria refers to the feelings of discomfort or distress elicited when one’s gender is not affirmed.

Gender euphoria refers to the feelings of elation or contentedness elicited when one’s gender is affirmed.

Cis(gender) refers to those who (exclusively) align with the gender they were assigned at birth.

Cisnormativity refers to the social organising principle that assumes and privileges bodies that align with the gender they were assigned at birth.

I use trans as shorthand for anyone who does not (exclusively) identify with the gender they were assigned at birth. However, not everyone uses this term, including those who see themselves as non-binary but not trans, or use non-Western concepts to describe themselves, such as irawhiti takatāpui (Māori), Pacific Rainbow + (MVPFAFF+) communities, bakla (Filipinx), hijra (the Indian sub-continent), two-spirit (North America), muxes (Mexico), and the many other ways of understanding what Western society might read as gender.

In Aotearoa, takatāpui refers to Māori gender, sex, and sexual diversity, understanding that an individual’s Māori whakapapa (genealogy) is integral to who they are. If you are interested in exploring these ways of knowing and being further the work of Elizabeth Kerekere, Benjamin Doyle, Logan Hamley, and Morgan Tupaea, among others, is recommended.

I use the term Western to refer to the systems of thinking that emerged from Modern colonisation (circa. 13^th century), which include the imposition of European understandings of sexual difference and gender roles (Lugones, 2007), racialisation (Quijano, 2000), and other entangled hierarchies (Wynter, 2003). The global effects of Modernity mean that these ideologies are not geographically limited.

Recommended links and further reading

Adhikaar Report

Pacific Rainbow +/MVPFAFF+

Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa

Relationships and Sexualities Education Guidelines

Youth2000 Study:

Clarke, T., et al. (2014). The Health and Well-Being of Transgender High School Students: Results From the New Zealand Adolescent Health Survey (Youth’12). Journal of Adolescent Health, 55, 93-99.

Fenaughty, J., et al. (2021). A Youth19 Brief: Transgender and diverse gender students.