© Nevit Dilmen, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Well, 2023 is behind us. Some highlights for me include:
Virtually attending the Genspect Killarney and Genspect Denver conferences. Both were amazing opportunities to learn from the brightest minds in the gender world.
The Killarney Group released a draft version of its Gender Framework at the Genspect Denver conference. The framework will offer a non-medical response to gender-related distress, as an alternative to the medical model offered through WPATH’s Standards of Care Version 8 (SOC8). Version 1 of the Gender Framework will be formally released in September 2024.
I joined the LGBT Courage Coalition. It’s one of the few organizations out there that sees value in the LGB and T communities working together toward the common goal of improving gender-related healthcare for minors and adults. I’ve been honoured to play a small part in contributing a few Substack posts to the LGBT-CC blog, including How much regret is enough? , Is CASW's stance on social transition in schools justified? , The role of evidence and autonomy in gender affirming care , and A gender transition story: How my views on medicalization have changed over time. I’ve been drawn to the organization’s commitment to free enquiry and diversity of thought on issues pertaining to LGBT communities.
The Gender Exploratory Therapy Association has rebranded and is now called Therapy First in an endeavour to highlight its commitment to psychotherapy as a viable first-line response to gender-related distress. I’m excited to see what 2024 will bring for this organization. In a previous blog post I described how gender exploratory therapy is helpful for gender-related distress.
Detransition news stories hit the mainstream in 2023. Some pieces of note include an article in the Atlantic in January about the need to take detransitioners seriously, and a Reuters article on why detransition stories matter. Following an article in The Free Press, The NYT attempted to broach the controversy of what’s happening in gender clinics, and the Washington Post waded in on detransitioners with a confusing take. In Australia, Channel 7 News put the, well, Spotlight on the realities of de-transitioning in that country. Hannah Barnes’ book Time to Think also garnered plaudits for its even-handed investigation on what was going on in the UK’s Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) — hint, it’s not good.
Detransition research in North America is on the rise and the DARE study launched at the end of 2023. Led by a research team out of Canada, it will be the largest sample across the US and Canada ever collected on the topic of detransition. This follows the Re/Detrans Canada Study, the results of which were shared earlier in the year.
Excited for the ongoing conversations in 2024 on how we can improve healthcare for all people navigating gender-related distress. If there’s a particular topic you’d like me to tackle in the coming year, please add it in the comments.
Happy New Year - and thanks for reading!