This project is intended to help those who are close to a gender variant child. Genderlens aims to provide people with clarifications on some of the key concepts that have to do with gender identity and gender expression. It wants to offer some ideas on how to behave in the interests of the child. What is proposed here is intended to be general guidelines, based on the review of the international scientific literature on gender variance in childhood together with the real experience of people involved, such as parents and health and education professionals. It is important to remember, however, that every child lives his/her gender identity and expresses it in a peculiar way, according to his/her own feelings, which will necessarily be different from that of any other person. Talking about gender variance might include many different experiences, each of which is legitimate for the simple fact of being experienced. In this project we try to use a language that is as respectful as possible of such diversity, inclusive and not pathological.
diversity is ok!
GenderLens‘s goal is showing, through the experiences of the families and their children, how much and in which way the environment next to the child strongly influences their life experience. The most recent scientific studies, from the field of anthropology, sociology and clinical psychology, show that family support toward their gender variant children is fundamental for their psychophysical well being and can, to a large extent, contribute to the growth of human beings capable of facing any situation with determination. Parents must not be left alone. Even teachers, health professionals, social service workers, all have the task, not always easy but certainly stimulating, to inform society of the multiple variance of gender and to accompany the child in a positive and reassuring way during this journey where only the starting point is known, but whose destination, given all possible and imaginable variables, is difficult to predict.