What does real support for trans kids look like in this fraught political moment? Ben V. Greene audaciously but persuasively suggests taking a joy-centered approach.
Greene, noted author and educator, talks with Blair Hodges about the challenges and joys of affirming transgender youth. They explore what parents and other loved ones can do when they’re scared or uncertain about how to be there for trans kids, and why compassion—not perfection—makes all the difference.
They also discuss what affirming therapy really is (and isn’t), how belonging improves mental health, and why love and understanding—not panic—save lives. A hopeful, human conversation for anyone trying to support a trans child or teen.
Full transcript available at relationscapes.org.
ABOUT THE GUEST: Ben V. Greene is author of the book, My Child Is Trans, Now What? A Joy-Centered Approach to Support. As a transgender man, Ben works as an LGBTQ+ inclusion consultant who has dedicated his career to spreading empathy, awareness, and understanding about the transgender community. He is active on the speaking circuit, with audiences ranging from the UK’s Diversity Live! to NASA. Ben is a guest lecturer on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Cornell University in addition to serving on the board of the Tufts Master’s Degree in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. He resides in St. Louis, Missouri.
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What does real support for trans kids look like in this fraught political moment? Ben V. Greene audaciously but persuasively suggests taking a joy-centered approach.
Greene, noted author and educator, talks with Blair Hodges about the challenges and joys of affirming transgender youth. They explore what parents and other loved ones can do when they’re scared or uncertain about how to be there for trans kids, and why compassion—not perfection—makes all the difference.
They also discuss what affirming therapy really is (and isn’t), how belonging improves mental health, and why love and understanding—not panic—save lives. A hopeful, human conversation for anyone trying to support a trans child or teen.
Full transcript available at relationscapes.org.
ABOUT THE GUEST: Ben V. Greene is author of the book, My Child Is Trans, Now What? A Joy-Centered Approach to Support. As a transgender man, Ben works as an LGBTQ+ inclusion consultant who has dedicated his career to spreading empathy, awareness, and understanding about the transgender community. He is active on the speaking circuit, with audiences ranging from the UK’s Diversity Live! to NASA. Ben is a guest lecturer on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Cornell University in addition to serving on the board of the Tufts Master’s Degree in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. He resides in St. Louis, Missouri.
Relationscapes: “Surviving the ‘Cure’ of Conversion Therapy,” with Lucas Wilson
Fireside with Blair Hodges
2 weeks ago
Relationscapes: “Surviving the ‘Cure’ of Conversion Therapy,” with Lucas Wilson
He was told he was broken. He was promised a cure. It was all a lie.
Lucas Wilson, author of "Shame-Sex Attraction: Survivors' Stories of Conversion Therapy," takes us inside the real experiences of queer people forced to try and change their so-called "same-sex attraction."
Lucas shares both his own story and those of survivors, revealing the psychological, moral, and spiritual harms of conversion therapy. He also explains why stories, not just statistics, are the most powerful way to confront the discredited practice.
As the U.S. Supreme Court gears up to overturn conversion therapy bans, these stories matter now more than ever.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Lucas Wilson is a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Toronto Mississauga. As a former evangelical and a survivor of conversion therapy, he is the editor of Shame-Sex Attraction: Survivors’ Stories of Conversion Therapy (JKP Books, 2025). He is also the author of At Home with the Holocaust: Postmemory, Domestic Space, and Second-Generation Holocaust Narratives (Rutgers University Press, 2025), which received the Jordan Schnitzer First Book Publication Award. He is also the co-editor of Emerging Trends in Third-Generation Holocaust Literature (Lexington Books, 2023), a collection of academic essays about the writings of grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, which has been named an “essential” title by Choice Reviews. His public-facing writing has appeared in The Advocate, Queerty, LGBTQ Nation, and Religion Dispatches, among other venues, and his academic work has appeared in Modern Language Studies, Canadian Jewish Studies, Flannery O’Connor Review, Journal of Jewish Identities, and Studies in American Jewish Literature and in edited collections published by The MLA, SUNY Press, The University of Alabama Press, and DIO Press. He is currently working on two interrelated monograph projects that examine evangelical homophobia and transphobia in the U.S.
Fireside with Blair Hodges
What does real support for trans kids look like in this fraught political moment? Ben V. Greene audaciously but persuasively suggests taking a joy-centered approach.
Greene, noted author and educator, talks with Blair Hodges about the challenges and joys of affirming transgender youth. They explore what parents and other loved ones can do when they’re scared or uncertain about how to be there for trans kids, and why compassion—not perfection—makes all the difference.
They also discuss what affirming therapy really is (and isn’t), how belonging improves mental health, and why love and understanding—not panic—save lives. A hopeful, human conversation for anyone trying to support a trans child or teen.
Full transcript available at relationscapes.org.
ABOUT THE GUEST: Ben V. Greene is author of the book, My Child Is Trans, Now What? A Joy-Centered Approach to Support. As a transgender man, Ben works as an LGBTQ+ inclusion consultant who has dedicated his career to spreading empathy, awareness, and understanding about the transgender community. He is active on the speaking circuit, with audiences ranging from the UK’s Diversity Live! to NASA. Ben is a guest lecturer on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Cornell University in addition to serving on the board of the Tufts Master’s Degree in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. He resides in St. Louis, Missouri.
