Intergenerational Panel on Embodying Gender

On Thursday I was part of an intergenerational panel discussion on embodying gender as part of the St. Louis County Health and Human Services Conference.  We were talking to a room full of about 60-70 social workers.  On the panel, we had two folx (including myself) who are 43 years old, one who is 53, and one who is in their 70s.  Our panel moderator is a cisgender woman who is a social worker who works primarily with trans kids and their families. We discussed topics from Transjoy and what it’s like to live a gender-expansive existence to systemic oppression, and the ways that colonialism, white supremacy, and capitalism reinforce the gender binary and try to keep us stuck in our places.  Our panel was well received, and Dr. Alex Iantaffi received an ovation from attendees when they said “Age is not an excuse for bigotry and that is a hill I will die on”. We took some questions from the audience including a discussion of the the prevalence of transphobia and assimilation in the gay community and how to work with gender-expansive kids who are living in unsupportive environments.

It was amazing to hear everyone's positive and negative experiences and talk about our gender journies, intersectionality, and what we would like therapists and social workers to know when they're working with all of their clients, not just their gender-expansive and gender-questioning clients. In the future, I would love to see the panel expand to include People of Color particularly Indigenous people, as the Two-Spirit gender is unique to the Indigenous community.  It was great to support social workers in the community to ask questions and hear the life experiences of a group of people who are gender expansive.