This presentation provides an introduction to the ‘gender revolution’ and its impact on younger people and explores how rapid onset gender dysphoria (ROGD) among pre-teen and younger teenage girls has surged in recent years. It explores some of the common features, and background factors, in cases of ROGD among under-18s [and some of the uncertainties which surround medical interventions]. However, the main focus is on (a) some practical steps - positive and protective - that parents and churches can take to promote in children and teenagers a healthy sense of identity, gender identity, and associated gender expression rooted in God’s love to us in creation and in Christ and (b) how parents can respond if a child is gender-questioning or identifies as trans and how churches can help.

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Christopher Townsend is a retired lawyer. On retirement, he completed an MPhil in New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of Cambridge. He chairs the editorial group of Cambridge Papers, a quarterly publication with the strapline ‘Towards a Biblical Mind’, which aims to help Christians engage with a complex and changing world (www.cambridgepapers.org). He wrote ‘Gender: Where Next? Personal journeys, radical agendas and perplexing dilemmas’ (Cambridge Paper: December 2016). He is a trustee of The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion. He is married to Kate and they have three adult children.

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