Asking About Gender: Confronting Assumptions and Challenging Transphobia

How do the questions we ask youth about their gender reflect assumptions that can
perpetuate harm and reproduce transphobia?

The way we ask about gender matters. We all want to be acknowledged for who we are – to be
respected, and to be referred to accurately and appropriately. In order to respect all youth, we
must ensure that the way we ask about gender reflects the diversity of our lived realities. In
doing so, we must interrogate and challenge how we understand gender and how we engage
with gender in our youth work.

In this webinar, we will:
● confront the ‘problem’ with gender;
● expand our definitions and understandings of gender;
● interrogate assumptions inherent to the gender binary; and
● determine how we can challenge transphobia in our practice.

We will also explore Asking About Gender: A Toolkit for Youth Workers, developed by
YouthREX and LGBT YouthLine. This resource will support you to apply these learnings to your
work, specifically in the development of gender menus that will accurately capture information
about your program participants – and reflect to youth that your programming is inclusive of
diverse gender identities.