Gender Stories

Alex Iantaffi interviews Dr. Angela Kade Goepferd about puberty blockers, in light of the Bell V Tavistock decision in the UK. They discuss why this decision is relevant in the UK and beyond, what puberty blockers are (and what is puberty), as well as the reasons why this is such a safe and effective treatment for some trans, nonbinary, and/or gender expansive children and youth. Angela Kade Goepferd, MD (she/they), is the Chief Education Officer for Children’s Minnesota, Chief of Staff, pediatrician in the Children’s Minneapolis Primary Care clinic and medical director of Children’s Gender Health Program. 

Dr. Goepferd has a passion for working with underserved and at-risk kids and families, speaks Spanish and cares for a diverse community of patients in the primary care clinic. In addition to running the academic education and health professional education programs for Children’s, Dr. Goeperd is the Chief of the Professional Staff. They are a leader in the LGBTQ community who is driving equitable care for LGBTQ youth, particularly transgender and gender expansive youth and is a sought after speaker and trainer on these topics. They were a member of the LGBT Standards of Care Advisory board, which developed the first healthcare standards for LGBT people in the state of Minnesota,  and have been a recipient of one of the inaugural Business of Pride awards from the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal in 2018, and winner of a special recognition award from the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2019 for advocacy and education about LGBTQ youth. In 2020 they gave their first TEDx talk, titled “The revolutionary truth about kids and gender identity” as part of TEDxMinneapolis. 

Instagram: GenderStories
Hosted by Alex Iantaffi
Music by Maxwell von Raven
Gender Stories logo by Lior Effinger-Weintraub

Alex Iantaffi talks about gender and sex in medieval times with Dr Eleanor Janega,  a medieval historian. More specifically, Dr Janega specialises in late medieval sexuality, apocalyptic thought, propaganda, and the urban experience in general, and in central Europe more particularly. She has taught (and still teaches) medieval and early modern history at a number of universities across London, in the UK. Her work can be found in History Today, at the BBC History magazine, at sex education websites such as BISH, and on discerning erotica sites such as Frolic Me.
Content warning: this conversation might change the way you think about the middle ages. Also, they talk about sex, a lot. Apparently, it's a medieval thing.
You can follow Dr Janega on Twitter @GoingMedieval, support her work on Patreon, read her blog and pre-oder her book The Middle Ages: A Graphic History, illustrated by Neil Max Emmanuel.

Instagram: GenderStories
Hosted by Alex Iantaffi
Music by Maxwell von Raven
Gender Stories logo by Lior Effinger-Weintraub

Alex Iantaffi and Meg-John Barker interview one another about self-care  from a trauma-informed perspective. They talk about what self-care is, why embodiment matters, and how individual and collective trauma impact our capacity to care for ourselves and others. Their new book "Hell Yeah Self-Care!: A Trauma-Informed Workbook"  will be published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers in January 2021 (but you can  pre-order it now).

This talk was given as part of The Embodiment Conference. However, both Alex and Meg-John want to be clear that their participation is not an endorsement of the conference.  In fact, they invite you to read the open letter about the conference that Tada Hozumi wrote at: https://medium.com/@tadahozumi/public-letter-to-mark-walsh-and-the-embodiment-conference-ab9319ee4b69

Alex and Meg-John hold their participation in the event with open hands and with as much transparency as possible. Thank you for listening!

Instagram: GenderStories
Hosted by Alex Iantaffi
Music by Maxwell von Raven
Gender Stories logo by Lior Effinger-Weintraub

Alex Iantaffi talks gender and parenting with Dr. Kyl Myers, a sociologist, educator, and globally recognized advocate of gender creative parenting. Kyl’s TEDx talk, Want Gender Equality? Let’s Get Creative, encourages people to rethink childhood gender socialization in an effort to break up the binary before it begins. Kyl is the creator of www.raisingzoomer.com and the @raisingzoomer Instagram account, advocating for letting kids be kids in an environment where everything is for everyone. Kyl has been featured in articles in international media, including New York, HuffPost UK, and MamaMia. Kyl lives with their family in Salt Lake City, Utah, and can be found providing bite-size gender studies lessons on their @kyl_myers Instagram account. They can also be found at kylmyers.com. Raising Them: Our Adventure in Gender Creative Parenting is their first book from TOPPLE Books.

Instagram: GenderStories
Hosted by Alex Iantaffi
Music by Maxwell von Raven
Gender Stories logo by Lior Effinger-Weintraub

In this joint episode of Gender Stories and the Meg-John & Justin podcast, Alex Iantaffi and Meg-John Barker continue the conversation with Deana Ayers about abolition. They discuss how abolition needs to be addressed at the cultural, community, and interpersonal levels as well as in the inner work each one us needs to do to make this vision a reality.

Deana Ayers is 21 year old Black, nonbinary organizer. They graduated in May 2020 with a Bachelor of Social Work degree from the University of North Texas. As a college student they were involved with student government, reproductive justice organizing, and a push for transformative justice and police abolition. They are currently living in Minneapolis, MN with their girlfriend, where they work as a Political Education Coordinator at an abolitionist organization. You can check out their writing and organizing work at deanajayers.com and follow them on Twitter @deanajayers. 

Deana's call to action is to support ZACAH's efforts in providing emergency housing to the unsheltered residents of Minneapolis: https://www.zacah.org/minneapolis-sanctuary-emergency-res

Instagram: GenderStories
Hosted by Alex Iantaffi
Music by Maxwell von Raven
Gender Stories logo by Lior Effinger-Weintraub

This episode was originally recorded as a Facebook live in June 2020 by your host, Alex Iantaffi. Here are some of their thoughts and reflections about gender and trauma during Pride season.
CN: Mentions of domestic violence, systemic violence, and racist and transmisogynistic violence when discussing the case of Cece Mc Donald.

If you are inteested in engaging in ongoing conversations on gender, you can join the Gender Stories Facebook Group.

Instagram: GenderStories
Hosted by Alex Iantaffi
Music by Maxwell von Raven
Gender Stories logo by Lior Effinger-Weintraub

Alex Iantaffi discusses prison abolition with Deana Ayers, a 21 years old Black, nonbinary organizer. They graduated in May 2020 with a Bachelor of Social Work degree from the University of North Texas. As a college student Deana was involved with student government, reproductive justice organizing, and a push for transformative justice and police abolition. They are currently living in Minneapolis, MN with their girlfriend, where they are interning for an economic justice organization and writing articles about prison industrial complex abolition, political education, and the social work profession. You can check out their published articles in their portfolio at deanajayers.journoportfolio.com and follow them on Twitter @deanajayers. 

Deana's call to action is to support a working class Latinx community in their journey to getting clean water: https://www.gofundme.com/f/green-tree-estates-water-relief?fbclid=IwAR34nStg63fv9Lg3T2z9FNIk17G_wEV6zH5vPjN2_yJSwkRnzOGN-QYOZ40

If you want to find out more about prison abolition in Minneapolis, check out the following websites: MPD 150 https://www.mpd150.com/ and Black Visions Collective https://www.blackvisionsmn.org/

Instagram: GenderStories
Hosted by Alex Iantaffi
Music by Maxwell von Raven
Gender Stories logo by Lior Effinger-Weintraub

Alex Iantaffi interviews Addison Rose Vincent (they/them), a 27-year-old queer transfeminine nonbinary advocate from Los Angeles, CA. Born in Canada and raised in Michigan, Addison moved to California at the age of 17 to come out as part of the LGBTQ+ community and pursue their dreams. Since graduating from Chapman University with a major in Peace Studies in 2015, they have worked for several Los Angeles non-profit organizations providing direct services to LGBTQ+ people facing sexual or domestic violence, housing insecurity, unemployment, addiction, and risk for HIV. Addison now serves as the Executive Director of the Nonbinary & Intersex Recognition Project (NIRP), a national advocacy organization working to create third gender options (X) on state IDs and help end invasive "corrective" surgeries on intersex youth. Addison is also the Founder & Lead Consultant of Break The Binary LLC, the Founder of the Non-Binary Union of Los Angeles (NBULA), and the Co-Director of History Reimagined.
NIRP: www.intersexrecognition.org
Email [email protected]
Break The Binary LLC: www.breakthebinaryllc.com
Addison's Instagram page: @breakthebinary

Instagram: GenderStories
Hosted by Alex Iantaffi
Music by Maxwell von Raven
Gender Stories logo by Lior Effinger-Weintraub

Content warning: mentions of transphobia in healthcare towards the end of the talk during the Q&A
This is a talk given by Alex Iantaffi at the University of Minnesota for the School of Nursing (co-sponsored by the Office of Equity and Diversity and by the Gender and Sexuality Center for Trans and Queer Life). Here's the description of the talk:
Gender liberation is often viewed as beneficial for trans, nonbinary or gender expansive people. In this talk, Dr. Iantaffi posits how a rigid gender binary is part of the ongoing settler-colonial project and, as such, it is a form of historical, cultural and social trauma that impacts everyone's health, albeit in different ways. Gender liberation, in this context, is then not only desirable for everyone, but also essential to the larger framework of healing justice, within which healing can be viewed as collective, interdependent, and sustainably rooted in community.

Instagram: GenderStories
Hosted by Alex Iantaffi
Music by Maxwell von Raven
Gender Stories logo by Lior Effinger-Weintraub

In this special joint episode of Gender Stories and the Meg-John & Justin podcast, Meg-John Barker and Alex Iantaffi reflect on how a non-binary approach might influence the way we approach the COVID-19 crisis. 

Instagram: GenderStories
Hosted by Alex Iantaffi
Music by Maxwell von Raven
Gender Stories logo by Lior Effinger-Weintraub