Gender: A Wider Lens - Live from Lisbon with Billboard Chris | Episode 187

Sasha and Stella speak live from the Genspect Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, with special guest Billboard Chris, a Canadian activist dedicated to challenging gender ideology through public engagement and thought-provoking messages.
In this conversation, Chris explores the psychological and cultural forces influencing social changes around gender, sharing his motivations for activism and the journey that led him to raise awareness about the implications of puberty blockers for children. He also discusses strategies for facilitating constructive dialogues with those who hold differing views, emphasizing the significance of calm, rational discourse in controversial discussions.
This episode examines the complex interplay of gender ideology in our culture, focusing on ongoing debates over children’s medical treatments, freedom of speech, educational content in schools, and the critical need to address the mental health challenges surrounding gender dysphoria.
Chris shares personal anecdotes from his activism, including experiences at the United Nations and community engagement, emphasizing the importance of parental involvement and informed consent in children's healthcare decisions.
Listeners will be confronted with a compelling exploration of the current landscape surrounding gender issues and the potential for meaningful change through open dialogue.
For links and resources relevant to this episode, access the full show notes at www.widerlensp...
Buy Our Book - When Kids Say They’re Trans: A Guide for Thoughtful Parents at whenkidssaythe...
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For more information about Sasha’s & Stella’s parent coaching membership groups, visit:
Sasha Ayad: sashaayad.com/...
Stella O’Malley: www.stellaomall...
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[@jamiegraham5841]

Chris Elston was born for this time. He is a man on fire to protect kids and boy I am so grateful for his efforts.

[@littermonks]

So are the other 234 people that have given this video a thumbs up as of October 8th, 2024. This number will surely grow - so let me know when it has reached a million.

[@Joy2Life333]

Absolutely incredible! As a non-affirming mother with a daughter who identifies as a boy, I am so grateful for the Chrises (and Stellas and Shashas) in the world. We parents are criticized on all sides and are so tired from the fight that having someone fight for our children gives so much comfort.

[@juliesheard2122]

Hang on in there! You can do it. ❤🫂💐

[@juliesheard2122]

What an amazing bloke. His courage, level headedness and inteligent clarity give me hope for humanity! ❤

[@jessk7240]

At the one hour mark I was really struck by what Stella said about being reluctant to seek counselling for a child - we removed our son from school when he was ten to home educate him because he was really, really stressed and damaged by school. Often we felt overwhelmed by helping him. I often felt at the absolute limit of my capability as a parent to support him, and we considered counselling many times. But our one ‘brush’ with CAMHS was deeply unimpressive, so we held off, and kept trying, kept thinking, kept being creative with how we helped him to think about himself and his life. And in the end that was the right thing. He didn’t need medicalising or treating. He needed acceptance and healing. I do believe most of the gender confused children we hear about nowadays need the same. They certainly don’t need their mental struggles validated as reality!

[@markrussell3428]

100% if you are seeing a Gender Therapist, the transgender solution is in the person's position title.

[@theroadlesstraveled3993]

I listened to this talk this morning on my way to take my teen to a new therapist session. (Not a gender affirming therapist). I'm sitting in my car in tears bc I don't know what I'm doing. Thought this was a good choice in the right direction and now I'm not sure. But everything I do seems to make things worse/not help. Maybe I just need therapy. I'm so emotionally and mentally exhausted.😢

[@ebflegg]

​@@theroadlesstraveled3993I don't know what to say that's helpful but I felt very sad for you reading this. I hope you find a confidant who listens to you and helps you. Best wishes X

[@jessk7240]

@@theroadlesstraveled3993 I feel for you. It’a so hard when you have a child struggling. You can only do your best. Trust your instincts and just keep trying - and keep communicating ❤️

[@lettersquash]

@@theroadlesstraveled3993 Please don't worry that you've done the wrong thing. The therapist is very unlikely to make anything worse (as you say, it's not a gender therapist!), but I would suggest letting your child tell you what it's like, and let them know they're in charge - if it doesn't feel right to them, it isn't and it's wise to trust their judgement on it. That's not the same as it feeling challenging, or having some upset involved, but therapy should feel supportive; it should feel good - encouraging - to talk to them. I hope it went well. Do you have someone to support you going through this difficulty?

[@jumblyman]

That was great. I kind of wish you would post the full uninterrupted sessions of these conferences to binge. Then you can trickle out the standalone segments as you usually do but I’d really love to binge the whole conference.

[@towpottsfam7631]

I've got children the same age as Chris has and am also manic and obsessed about this subject we are protecting our kids and their generation

[@maureenjohnston7414]

Thank you so much…we need more programs like this

[@HellCatt0770]

Billboard Chris is a legend. Everyone should donate a £$€ to his non-profit

[@mattflynn3469]

I agree and I just did! Chris is the man!

[@BirdistheNerd]

Thank you for pushing back a little bit on the mental illness angle around 58:00. (I'm quite worried for the future of mental health as this current era of healthcare breaks so many boundaries and frayed bonds of trust people have in it) The gentleman asked why are parents taking their kids to a therapist 2 weeks in. Because the parents are terrified. If a pediatrician tells you your child needs to see X,Y, or Z because of serious issues or possibly a fatal outcome in the extreme, YOU GO! I'm much wiser now. But in the US, kids can be separated from their parents and lead down the rabbit hole of "mental health" without a parents' consent. I was asked to leave the room so my child could speak with a dr. The minute I pieced together what was happening and that I had say in only certain areas, I had to hold on with both hands to those areas. It has cost me a great deal health-wise, I fear to think what it could have and has caused my child. The stress that comes at your from all sides while all you want to do is make sure your kid is OK is tremendous. Our issues weren't even about gender. I can't imagine the outrageous pressure these families endure when they were on a journey that had the "best of" funding it. It's maddening and heartbreaking and criminal. Many families are caught up in this and barely treading water. Everything happens so fast from the moment you enter the drs office.

[@markrussell3428]

No, not so fast. Adolescent therapist can be a step back preventing a child from achieving personal resilience. It becomes part of victem culture. "I have a therapist" becomes another signal (excuse) to others that "I am special, I need your empathy". Much like an adolescent wants a diagnosis, and an excuse that their "ability" is compromised. Hence there is no reason to put in effort - you need to accommodate my difference. You can add in how much more are we going to compromise for those who are now learning they come from a legacy of the oppressed and ancestral trauma. Another victim hood narrative.

[@baronesswithabrush1991]

At 49:55 --- Yes, the 'letters' need to be separated; it is not the LGBQT lobby, it's TQ lobby...

[@rubydunaimangold938]

I love this man so much! He is a hero

[@JonCrawford-i9g]

"Parents need the therapy" and "kids need to get off the internet and go outside and play with their friends" direct hit! 👍

[@yellowhorsecj]

this is such a serious subject and of so much concern should Stella be getting so much joy form her campaign

[@dyoung1492]

As a former teacher in the UK, we got slides from an outside company which we had to deliver. I taught in a secondary school so it wasn't so heavy. I just pretended that the Whiteboard was broken and we had a chat about studies, work and ... the things the kids felt were important to them. Many of them felt that the gender stuff was irrelevant to them and "a bit nonsensical if you ask me" from one student.

[@AndyJarman]

Huh? I've seen this already yet You Tube says it was posted only an hour ago?? Ah, it was posted on Genspect first.

[@markrussell3428]

Genspect posted this right after the live stream, except there was about an hour of dead air. This is the better version.

[@brockreynolds870]

OMG... the statements at 43:30 are just so stunning. I'm a gay man who pees sitting down. Why? 1: It's called a RESTroom, so I like to sit down and rest for a minute. 2: I also have to clean my bathroom, and urianting standing up always makes leaning the bahtroom into MUCH more of a chore! I shudder to think what people would have tried to tell me and influence me when I was a child, playing Charlie's Angels with 2 girls on the playground. You just know that some social justice warrior would tell me I was trans after seeing me pretend to be Kate Jackson at reccess.

[@juliesheard2122]

Your words are full of wisdom and much appreciated. ❤

[@shannonsayshi]

Ha ha Stella! I caught the reference to the God Father with the horse's head. 😅

[@markrussell3428]

Chris is brilliant. I wanted to hear Sasha enter into the discussion around the merits of Gender & Sexuality Alliance AKA Gay & Straight Alliance (GSA). Sasha has run these clubs when they had purpose and meaning. Have they gone of the rails? Are the appropriate?? These "student led" school clubs might actually be more a problem than a solution. Imagine a school club for "normies" where the topic of hetrosexuality is explored more deeply?? I think the police would be called because grooming becomes rather obvious.

[@GreggGiblin-sy5og]

I would probably benefit by sitting down with you guys to help me find out what the hell is going on with me. I'm a walking contradiction...a paradox that confuses even me. In my older age, I now realize that my younger self was way too cavalier in expecting my lovers to viscerally accept my unconventional predilections.

[@lettersquash]

This was the most encouraging video I've witnessed yet on the trans scandal. Chris is amazing. I would, however, like to advise against bigging up Jordan Peterson. He was in the vanguard protesting against Canadian wokery, of course, but it's hypocritical to call gender ideology "nuts" and support Peterson, who is off the charts whacko, not to mention a beligerent misogynist with a disturbing history of drug addiction, cult-like diets, and extremely authoritarian parenting (he literally force-fed his kid for an hour, holding food in his mouth until he had to swallow, to "out-stubborn" him, and boasted about it in one of his myth-infused "lectures" here on youtube). His reactionary politics gives the gender-confused that damaging excuse to ignore us, equating gender critic with insane, far-right, angry dinosaur. Cheers.

[@Atomb]

Piss off purity police.

[@lettersquash]

@@Atomb Interesting. What did I write that you think is "purity policing"? I'm just letting people know I think JP is a monumental asshole and not to keep recommending him in connection with this issue. But I apologise - I didn't realise this was your Internet.

[@lettersquash]

@@Atomb Shush. Adults are talking.

[@Atomb]

@@lettersquash Sanctimonious queefs more like it.

[@paulmead5832]

Goodness, he is so angelic.

[@AndyJarman]

You might find his appearance on Peter Boghossian's video released today interesting. He's very clever when he manages to seduce an ideologue into openly discussing this.

[@slacktoryrecords4193]

He’s a beautiful man, isn’t he?

[@nogorman560]

#RepealGRA

[@laurykristensen6239]

I ❤ LOVE J.K. ROWLING

[@paulmead5832]

My

[@goodkady]

21:15 They tricked him

[@Argeaux2]

Chris seems like a nice guy. However, he doesn’t seem to realise how patronising it is to refer to every single female he mentions as a “lovely lady”. It’s not necessary to call us lovely. We aren’t blushing beauties who need flattery. Just refer to us as women. Be a man who will actually call women just that. It will be refreshing, in an age where so many people call us cis women, or TERFs. I would love to hear women called women, for a change.

[@baronesswithabrush1991]

I agree with you, but years of non-obvious conditioning have taught guys to try to flatter women... I can not stand the terms the trans came up with in order to 'other' us people rooted in sexual reality so that they can feel like they are not the 'Other'. The worst part is the well meaning folks who go along and willingly call themselves CIS. It is pathetic. ~Proud TERF (I hate that term but have now co-opted it)

[@baronesswithabrush1991]

Men are conditioned to flatter. I don't mind it. Rather called that than CIS or TERF. Trans folks invented ugly names so they can OTHER us, instead of themselves being 'othered'.

[@baronesswithabrush1991]

It's too bad the far RIGHT has captured this issue and made it POLITICAL. Just like Martina Navratilova, I am about as far LEFT as one can get, but have not been swayed into this absurd notion of GENDER being different than SEX.

[@ribbonsofnight]

If the far? left weren't captured on this issue then the right couldn't make it about politics. It's not the right that has a problem. Far right is just a meaningless pejorative term at this point.

[@baronesswithabrush1991]

@@ribbonsofnight The Right have plenty of problems, so that term is not at all a meaningless pejorative. It was the Right Wing in the U.K. who signed off on Gender ID cards, so... they were 'captured' first actually. They seemed quite happy to spread this nonsense. My point was that it should not really be a left/right problem & it shouldn't be Political. It's an 'All Sane Hands On Deck' to stop the insanity problem. But when the admirable Billboard crusader guy mentions the weasel Tucker Carlson (ugh!) I have to bring up the 'far right'.

[@juliesheard2122]

None of this is political, it is dualistic.

[@baronesswithabrush1991]

@@ribbonsofnight Was the Conservatives in the U.K. who issued Gender ID Cards. So..... yeah. That's the RIGHT, not the left.

[@baronesswithabrush1991]

@@juliesheard2122 Um, no. Unless you mean 'non-binary' Ha Ha. Joking.

[@mrlawilliamsukwarmachine4904]

52:03 Musk wasn’t tricked. He’s in the club.

[@ac27934]

What's your evidence for that? Everything I've seen and heard points in the opposite direction.

[@goodkady]

Something’s cockamamie about a multi-billionaire genius being spoofed by a bunch of quack doctors… it’s almost like we are being forced to accept that either 1) Elons Musk is insane, 2) that he’s a plain dummy, or 3) that this is some kind of queer (sensu stricto) test and our belovèd JP is in cahoots. I feeling all discombobulated.