About Us

We aim to create a space informed by diverse perspectives and responsive to the needs of those we serve.

Gender Journey Conference was established to:

1. Welcome families and caregivers of all kinds and offer opportunities for them to connect.
2. Create fun and safe spaces for children, tweens, teens and young adults of all gender identities and expressions.
3. Provide opportunities for families and professionals to learn from one another and deepen their understanding of gender.
4. Welcome thought-partners to keep us accountable as we learn year after year the practices that build and sustain inclusive schools, families, and communities.
5. Create a model for a local or regional conference on gender that can be replicated across communities.

 Often the terms “gender” and “sex” are used interchangeably. This idea has become so common that it is rarely questioned. We are born, assigned a sex, and sent out into the world. For many people, this is cause for little, if any dissonance. Yet biological sex and gender are different; gender is not inherently nor solely connected to one’s physical anatomy. Instead, multiple dimensions inform one's experience of gender.

Biological gender (sex) includes physical attributes such as external genitalia, sex chromosomes, gonads, sex hormones, and internal reproductive structures. At birth, it is used to assign sex, that is, to identify individuals as male, female or intersex. 

Gender on the other hand is far more complicated. It is the complex interrelationship between an individual’s sex (gender biology), one’s internal sense of self as male, female, both or neither (gender identity) and one’s outward presentations and behaviors (gender expression) related to that perception. Together, the intersection of these dimensions produces one’s authentic sense of gender. 

We gather community needs from families and professionals through conversations and conference surveys, as well as emerging trends. We curate our workshops and presentations with provider partners across various disciplines that serve families with transgender and gender expansive children.

Gender Journey Mid-Atlantic has its roots in Gender Conference East, which began in 2014 in Baltimore. The seed was planted when PFLAG moms in Maryland and New York wanted to create a local space for resources, support and community. PFLAG Columbia-Howard County, PFLAG NYC, The Ackerman Institute's Gender & Family Project and Gender Spectrum partnered to create Gender Conference East. In 2019, responding to an ever-growing need, Gender Conference NYC and Gender Journey Conference Mid-Atlantic were born. In 2021 we offered a well attended virtual mini family day event.