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 will demonstrate 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.