What my transgender child can teach us about the workforce of the future | World Economic Forum

My husband sent me this text about our daughter while I was attending a luncheon at Davos 2019 on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) inclusion, sponsored by LGBTI advocacy organization GLAAD and the Ariadne Getty Foundation.

I had opened the luncheon by sharing my family s journey parenting a 13-year-old transgender daughter, and our commitment to create a world where she is safe and accepted. On the same day, that daughter Jordyn was starting at a new school – a small, private one, because the anti-LGBTI culture in her public middle school had threatened her mental health.

My heart was melting as I thought about her getting on that school bus. I desperately wanted to text her words of support. But I knew a mother s you can do it text would be met with scepticism. Fortunately, I had an ace up my sleeve.

One of Jordyn s icons, social media superstar and transgender woman Gigi Gorgeous, was sitting a few seats away from me at the Davos luncheon. I asked Gigi to text my daughter while she was still on the bus. A few minutes later, instead of a disdainful response to a mother s platitudes, Jordyn texted me Omg omg omg, do I text her back?! The magic of Davos in bringing global leaders together meant my daughter was off to a good start on her first day of school.

via www.weforum.org