Gender Spectrum Family Conference - Now Accepting Submissions

GENDER SPECTRUM FAMILY NEWS

Gender Spectrum Family Conference - Now Accepting Submissions
Update: Barbara Walters and 20/20
Family Support Groups - National Access
Challenging Economic Times


Gender Spectrum Family Conference - Now Accepting Submissions
New Workshop Submission Deadline - DUE FEB 29TH

Gender Spectrum Family, a one-of-a-kind national conference held in conjunction with Gender Odyssey, is devoted to the needs of families raising kids who do not conform to society's traditional gender expectations. We are seeking submissions from professionals, providers, and others who work with gender non-conforming and transgender children and teens. We encourage submissions addressing topics ranging from legalities, medical considerations, school-related issues, family
dynamics, issues related to adolescence and more.

Go to (http://www.genderodyssey.org/details/workshops/index.htm) for more details.

In an effort to establish our program and have it available on our website sooner, we have revised our submission due date. Please make a note of this in your calendar.

New Deadline: Submissions are due February 29th, 2009

Update: Barbara Walters and 20/20: "A Spectrum of Paths to Parenthood"

In November, Barbara Walters spoke with Stephanie Brill, co-founder of Gender Spectrum, and an array of transgender families in an exclusive 20/20 special. Brill shared with Walters the discrimination that many transgender people experience when creating families. Brill says,

"Each time that something pushes the edge...our society, at first, tends to think it's wrong. Whether that was people having interracial babies, or whether that was single mothers by choice [or] whether that was gay or lesbian families. The same is true for transgender families."

Gender Spectrum is proud to have had the opportunity to work with Walters and 20/20 on this very important issue. To read the full article, visit 20/20's website
Click here

Family Support Groups - National Access

Gender Spectrum offers support groups for parents or guardians of gender variant or transgender children. For those who live in the California Bay area or in Seattle, Washington, we have groups that meet monthly at the
Oakland and Seattle Children's Hospitals, respectively. For more information, click here.

If you live outside of these areas or for any other reason are unable to attend these groups in person, we have tele-conferencing capabilities. Our tele-conference group meets on the third Sunday of every month from 5pm to 7pm PST. For logistical reasons, advanced reservations must be made for tele-conferencing access. Please call 1-877-809-4159 for more information.

Challenging Economic Times

We know that the economic recession will leave relatively few of us unscathed. Over the last few months since our last conference, Gender Spectrum staff has worked hard to ensure no increase in conference costs and continue to provide a number of ways to keep this conference financially accessible. We have successfully negotiated with our host hotel, the Silver Cloud - Broadway and our main venue, the Washington State Convention & Trade Center, to not increase their rates for our 2009 event. Additionally, we will continue to maintain our very affordable registration rate. For those who might need further assistance, there are scholarship and subsidy options available through our website.

This is a service provided by
Organisation Intersex International