Welcome to my first recorded interview! Well, actually, I’ve recorded hundreds of interviews in order to write articles, but this is first time I’ve recorded one for other people to listen to. I wanted to have a conversation with Stephanie Davies-Arai, founder of the advocacy group Transgender Trend, about her organization, her thoughts on gender dysphoria and her recent award of the British Empire Medal.
For those of you who’ve been reading my stuff for a while, you know I’m still trying to walk a nuanced line, and that I try to report the points and evidence that sometimes both the left and the right media leave out. Thus I was a little wary of the name of her organization, because while clearly there’s an element of social contagion in the massive increase in kids identifying as trans, there are also genuinely gender nonconforming, and genuinely gender dysphoric kids out there, not influenced by their peers (other than to, perhaps, feel some shame about how incorrectly masculine or feminine they are).
What I didn’t realize was that Stephanie had been such a child herself: stereotypically masculine, convinced she was really a boy, deeply dysphoric during puberty and, eventually, a woman comfortable in her body. So I asked her to talk about that experience, and how we can best support kids like the one she used to be. Thanks for listening.
From Tomboy to Transgender Trend