What Genspect has done: Our 48 achievements so far

By Angus Fox

At Genspect, we’re doing so much work making change in the world that sometimes we forget to let you know just how much we’ve achieved, and just how busy we are. So here’s a list of what we’ve done since we launched:

  1. Intervened in a large number of specific and sensitive cases via our parent advocacy service, ensuring that children are not socially transitioned against their parents’ will in school or in any other context. In one case — the Welsh district of Rhondda Cynon Taf — our intervention resulted in the entire local authority area revisiting its “Trans Toolkit”, protecting potentially thousands of kids from social transition in the school setting.
  2. Released a comprehensive, referenced series of guidance notes for
    • Parents
    • Friends and family
    • Parent support groups
    • Schools
    • Colleges and universities
    • Psychotherapists and counsellors
    • Pediatricians and primary care providers
    • Mental health practitioners and front line workers.
  3. Launched Stats for Gender, a website designed to showcase statistics and research about gender, helping parents and others counter the misinformation which is frequently heard on this topic.
  4. Created Genspect Unheard, a website where parents share their stories, in their own voices, with the wider world.
  5. Created a highly successful social media campaign, #ROGDawarenessday, directing a huge level of attention for ROGD so the likes of Jack Turban were moved to comment.
  6. Hosted the world’s first conference devoted to the topic of ROGD, with keynote speakers including Dr. David Bell and Dr. Lisa Littman.
  7. Met with a large number of schools to provide them with staff training and to educate about the challenges related to gender identity, sex and sexual orientation. These staff trainings help schools to evaluate school policies, school resources, educational materials, content, and appropriate decisions for toilets, changing rooms, sporting activities and residential stays. In so doing we have ensured that the rights of gender-questioning kids do not impinge upon the rights of other young people, especially girls. We have also contacted over 5,000 different schools, sending them copies of our Schools Guidance and offering them a different view of what it means for young people to question their gender.
  8. Given a number of talks to associations of school principals and other key policy-makers in the education sector, giving them an opportunity to talk about the challenges they face, and providing them with practical advice on how best to manage their obligations.
  9. Created and released the Gender Giraffe, a graphic which provides kids with accurate, non-ideological information and thus helped teachers fulfil their regulatory obligation to teach about gender.
  10. Met with a number of colleges and universities, helping them understand the impact of the college environment and how mental wellbeing needs to be viewed within the long-term perspective, and also educating about the dangers of making irreversible decisions while a young person’s identity is still in a formative stage.
  11. Provided behind-the-scenes support for the filing of legal complaints against prominent “gender-affirming” clinicians.
  12. Provided behind-the-scenes support for amicus briefs, which help those who believe they have suffered from medical malpractice to solidify their arguments.
  13. Testified at a subcommittee meeting in New Zealand, to warn about the dangers of banning “conversion therapy” on the basis of gender identity.
  14. Made a number of written submissions to governmental consultations on gender issues, in jurisdictions like the UK, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
  15. Partnered with PITT (Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans) to help amplify parent perspectives.
  16. Given “background” interviews to journalists from major left-of-center outlets, helping them gently to move the needle when it comes to their coverage of pediatric transition, and putting them in contact with parents we represent.
  17. Featured not once, not twice but three times in Medscape, a well-reputed medical portal read by many clinicians and health professionals across the world.
  18. Featured in the highly prestigious journal The Lancet, explaining the complexities of providing information to gender dysphoric youth.
  19. Appeared on Sky News Australia, to talk about the frightening elevation of numbers of children suffering with gender dysphoria.
  20. Appeared twice on GB NEWS: once to discuss the fast-tracking of gender-questioning kids into medical procedures, and a second time when we provided two different guests – a detransitioner and a parent – who spoke frankly about their own situations.
  21. Appeared on LBC Radio, to discuss the way in which gender ideology is infiltrating unrelated components of the school curriculum.
  22. Appeared on Spirit Radio, to help the general public understand the experimental nature of many of the treatments now offered for gender dysphoria.
  23. Featured on Newstalk Radio about issues related to the “conversion therapy” ban.
  24. Featured in the Dallas Morning News, using the opportunity of “And Just Like That” (the “Sex and the City” reboot) to provide context about parenting gender-questioning kids.
  25. Featured in The Australian, raising concerns about the dogmatic “affirmation only” treatment model.
  26. Featured in The Daily Telegraph, sharing a Genspect parent’s view on the pernicious influence of ill-considered messaging in children’s television.
  27. Featured again in The Daily Telegraph, providing clarification about the consequences of UK law for gender-questioning kids.
  28. Featured in The Times and The Daily Mail, to stress the way in which harmful and outdated gender stereotypes are being used to justify life-long medical interventions.
  29. Featured again in The Times, with Genspect advisor Sinéad Watson speaking candidly about her own transition and subsequent detransition.
  30. Broken a news story from Ireland, revealing that the LGBTI+ Inclusion Strategy Steering Committee couldn’t find evidence justifying its own “conversion therapy” ban.
  31. Met with key legislators, such as British politician Baroness Nicholson, to advocate for the parents we represent.
  32. Met with Hilary Cass in the context of the Cass Review, ensuring that the concerns of the parents we represent take their rightful place in the debate.
  33. Shared parents’ concerns on a variety of other podcasts from across the political spectrum, such as the American Conversation, The Boyce of Reason, Savage Minds, Plebity, Women’s Liberation Radio News, Theology in the Raw, The Reason We Learn and Meghan Daum’s Unspeakable Podcast, where we facilitated public dialogue between parents and clinicians.
  34. Co-sponsored the popular podcast Gender: A Wider Lens, a deep dive into a psychological exploration of body, mind, identity, culture, and psyche through the lens of gender.
  35. Written an open letter to EPATH on behalf of 24 organizations in 13 countries, alerting the public to EPATH’s refusal to listen to parents’ legitimate concerns.
  36. Written an open letter to WPATH expressing concern about their new “Standards of Care” document.
  37. Launched a parent forum with hundreds of members, creating a space where they can share their experiences and discuss different ways of informing the public about what is happening in their families.
  38. Helped to lift the voices of detransitioners with our “Detransition Island” graphic, which sensitively captures the experiences of many detransitioners who share our concerns about the current state of healthcare for gender-questioning youth.
  39. Worked with Phoenix Publishers to send free copies of Marcus and Sue Evans’ book, “Gender Dysphoria: A Therapeutic Model for Working with Children, Adolescents and Young Adults”, to clinicians and therapists.
  40. Released our “Local Laws” database, giving parents the information they need about the laws and regulations in their jurisdiction.
  41. Created a map of parent stories from around the world, where parents who wish to protect their identity can write candidly about what has happened in their own families.
  42. Facilitated the creation of private networks of medical professionals who wish to learn more about parents’ concerns, allowing the parents we represent to influence the thinking of key figures in the healthcare sector.
  43. Create a large amount of web content, including content in French and Spanish, to ensure that the message of our parents is spread beyond our core community, and helping our followers keep up-to-date with all the important developments.
  44. Provided a huge amount of ongoing support to detransitioners, working with them behind the scenes as well as in public fora.
  45. Launched two further webinars: our upcoming #DetransAwarenessDay conference on 12 March, which will raise awareness of detrans perspectives, and our upcoming college symposium on 8 April, which will help colleges disseminate accurate information.
  46. Maintained a strong alliance between 18 different parent groups from 16 different countries and formed an effective and energetic online working group, with interactions between key team members from organizations such as Amanda Familias, AMQG, Aotearoa Support, Bayswater, Cardinal Support, Cry for Recognition, GDSN, GENID, Kirjo, No Corpo Certo, Oasis, Our Duty, PROGDK, TransTeens Sorge Berechtigt and Ypomoni.
  47. Successfully curated a moderate, approachable image which protects the parents we represent from allegations of extremism.
  48. Provided emotional support for the many distressed parents in our community, helping them fight back with resilience and optimism in circumstances which can often feel hopeless.

We’ve done all of that in 231 days. And the best is yet to come!