Adolescent Gender Identity

Gender identity can be thought of as your child’s sense of who they are and how they experience their own gender—whether that be male, female, both or neither. As more young people identify as part of the LGBTQI+ community, they are challenging binaries in gender and sexual identity to show a broader spectrum of experience.

On Tuesday, Sept. 14 at noon, in a new Well Moment webinar, Shawn Reilly, M.Ed., the program coordinator of the Trans Buddy program at the Program for LGBTQ Health at Vanderbilt, will help parents and families understand the complexities of gender identity and how they can ensure their child feels safe and supported in their journey of self-identification.

All parents, families, guardians and community leaders are invited to hear Reilly discuss:

• The differences between sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity and gender expression
• Best practices for supporting youth who come out
• The significance of intentional pronouns and the growing usage of they/them/theirs as singular pronouns
• Recommendations and resources for supporting LGBTQI+ youth

About the Expert:

Shawn Reilly, M.Ed., (they/them/theirs) is the coordinator of the Trans Buddy program at the Program for LGBTQ Health at Vanderbilt, the first transgender patient navigation service in the country. Reilly serves as the Student Engagement and Leadership Chair of GLSEN Tennessee, working with Gender & Sexuality Alliances, teachers and students across Tennessee to build inclusive and responsive schools for LGBTQI+ students. They are a youth advisory board member for Youth+Tech+Health and a founding member of the TN Department of Health Transgender HIV Task Force.