What Davos taught me about supporting my transgender child

Last year when I was in Davos, I received a text from my 11-year-old saying “I’m bi.” The next text said, “Never mind, I’m too young to know.” A month later, my child made it very clear that she was straight and transgender. Although assigned male at birth, she had known for a long time that she was female. And so our family’s gender journey began, with a very steep learning curve. From the start, our love and support were never in question. But we faced a personal challenge: how do we as a family nurture and celebrate our transgender child?

I was not expecting Davos to play a role in our personal challenge. But this year it did.

I don’t remember attending any sessions on gender or sexuality issues during my six previous visits to Davos. This year, however, the official programme included two sessions (though not on the main stage): “We Need to Talk About LGBTQ Identity” and “Getting to Equal and The Power of LGBT Inclusive Cities”.

GLAAD wasn’t alone in calling for change. The presidents of Microsoft and The Dow Chemical Company spoke on their panel alongside senior executives at EY, Omnicom, and PayPal. A renowned host of CNN International moderated the panel in a room that was not only at capacity, but also had Davos attendees standing at the back to be a part of it.

Don’t get me wrong, there have been challenges to accepting our transgender child, and my family has also confronted discrimination head on. We were lucky to have Dr Ehrensaft’s book as a knowledgeable and compassionate road-map. And to think that when we found it, the book had been out for less than a year. Our journey would have been harder without it.

This year in Davos, I realized that, beyond all the big ideas, past all the fancy global conversations, is the simple, humbling and powerful fact that we are all on that same journey to becoming our authentic self. And we all deserve the freedom to be that person.

Davos also affirmed something that Dr Ehrensaft points out in her book: cultural, medical, and legal landscapes are changing rapidly. It’s clear that the next generation of leaders will view gender and identity much differently than we do now. LGBTQ issues have not been on the main stage at Davos, but given my long relationship with the World Economic Forum and after seeing the caliber of talent and the sheer excitement in the room during the GLAAD panel, I know Davos is ready and will lead the way forward for my daughter and all the children like her.

And after this year’s Annual Meeting, I can add Gigi Gorgeous and Davos to that list, for making me a better parent and advocate for my daughter.

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