What does a doubling in referrals to our Gender Identity Development Service mean about how society’s view of gender is shifting?

12 May 2016

Nationally, globally even, we’re seeing a real shift in how we talk about gender. We seem to be moving to a less binary world. We have to take note of this shifting context. Having said that, the young people referred to our service come here with their own unique experience, which may or may not, reflect the shifting social discourse. Our job is not to pre-suppose anything about what they are going through. We continue to look at each child and their family individually.

We’re often faced with the question about why we’re seeing such an increase in referrals and it’s an issue I have explored through discussion with the media, and via online commentaries. We can’t identify a single reason for the increase, but we have certainly seen a cultural shift and thankfully more acceptance in terms of how we think about gender and greater recognition of transgender and gender variant people.

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