Dr. Angela Kade Goepferd, medical director of the Gender Health program at Children’s Minnesota, recently joined Angela Davis on MPR News to talk about how children express gender identity and ways families can support gender expansive children and teens.

In the segment, Dr. Goepferd describes the evolution of identity expression that children experience as they grow up. Kids’ understanding of gender, gender roles and gender identity, as well as their own understanding of themselves, helps them to formulate this expression.

Thanks to a shift in our cultural understanding of gender and the introduction of new words to our language, we’ve collectively expanded the ways in which we can all describe who we are and how we identify.

Dr. Goepferd goes on to define terms like non-binary, gender expansive, gender fluid and transgender to give listeners a better understanding of how to respectfully interact with gender diverse adults and kids alike.

During the segment, Dr. Goepferd joined other guests:

• Minnesotan author Tom Rademacher, who recently published a new book about his personal journey raising a gender expansive child. The book is titled, “Raising Ollie: How my Nonbinary Art-Nerd Kid Changed (Nearly) Everything I Know.”
• Ty Gale, a co-founder of the nonprofit organization TIGERRS (Transgender, Intersex, Gender-Expansive Revolutionary Resources & Services) which runs programming for gender nonconforming children and teenagers.

Listen to the full show here.

Children’s Minnesota Gender Health program is an exclusively pediatric, multidisciplinary gender health program, and includes pediatric gender health, endocrinology and gynecology physicians.

The Gender Health program provides compassionate and comprehensive care for transgender and gender-diverse youth. We’re dedicated to serving as an essential medical partner and resource for transgender youth and families along their journey.