- This event has ended.
Gender is complicated, and so is gender care. This talk will review the science of sexual development to demonstrate, objectively, that sex is more complicated than a simple binary and to look at the ways in which gender identity development appears to be affected by multiple biological processes. It will then examine how developing a transgender surgery center in a pediatric hospital has raised issues of access, autonomy, and policy making in health care and discuss some of the research that has been enabled by working with the adolescent transgender population.
Elizabeth Boskey, Ph.D., MPH, MSSW is currently the social worker and research director for the Center for Gender Surgery at the Boston Children’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. As a certified sexuality educator and certified health education specialist, she has been engaged in research and education about gender and sexuality for more than two decades. She has contributed to numerous books and articles on sexual health and related fields and is on the editorial board of the American Journal of Sex Education. Elizabeth recently helped found the New England Gender C.A.R.E. Consortium (Collaboration, Access, Research, Education) to help improve access to gender affirming care around the region.