Trans Youth Rising:
Coming Out of The Shadows
AI Usage Disclosure: Jenn Burleton utilized ChatGPT 5.2 to generate initial historical and chronological context and content, as well as to summarize background literature, during the preparation of this work. The AI-generated content was reviewed, edited, and verified by the author, who takes full responsibility for the final content and accuracy of this publication.
No confidential or protected data was input into the AI tool.
AI prompt (January 3, 2026): “What is the oldest known record of human gender diverse identity or expression?”
- The written history of gender-diverse identity and expression in adults dates back to the cult of Inanna (later known as Ishtar) in ancient Mesopotamia (3,000 BCE).
- These texts do not frame gender diversity as pathology or deviance; they were ritually and ideologically meaningful.
- Indigenous cultures most likely have histories of gender diversity that are as old (or older); however, they were orally transmitted.
- These examples represent both visibility and support/affirmation of gender-diverse individuals and groups throughout antiquity.
AI prompt (January 3, 2026): “When did modern support and advocacy for gender-diverse adults and children begin?”
Modern support and advocacy for gender-diverse adults began in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with organized scientific and legal defense, most notably through Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexual Science (1919–1933). Mass public and grassroots civil rights advocacy emerged between the 1950s and 1970s.
In contrast, modern, organized, cisgender parent-led support for gender-diverse children and their families did not emerge until the mid-1990s, with the 1995 formation of Mermaids in the United Kingdom.
Sustained, trans-led youth and family advocacy only emerged in the mid-2000s.
AI prompt (January 3, 2026):
“What was the first organization led by a transgender person to advocate for trans children, youth, and their families?“
“The earliest known organization led by a transgender person whose explicit mission was advocacy and support for transgender children, youth, and their families is TransActive Education & Advocacy.”
Here is what ChatGPT got wrong
With those corrections, it's accurate to say that TYFA was the first trans-led organization specifically serving the needs of gender-diverse children, youth, and their families.
Trans Youth Family Advocates Document Archive | August 2006 to Late Summer 2007
Most of these documents and other records were saved and compiled by Jenn Burleton and others contemporaneously at the time the events occurred.
In some instances, this content was later retrieved using Internet search tools and research conducted with the assistance of ChatGPT 5.2. All content included as the result of AI bot prompts is identified as such, and has been independently verified using other sources.
TYFA Timeline: 2006-2007
In the mid-1990s, Jenn Burleton began an online dialogue with Evelyn Lindenmuth, the mother of a transgender daughter named Danielle. Evelyn, using the pen name "Just Evelyn" at the time, had written a book titled "Mom, I Need To Be A Girl" about her daughter's coming out as trans at the age of 15 in 1994. It is considered to be the first non-fiction public narrative of a family supporting their transgender child.
Through this dialogue, Evelyn and Jenn built trust in each other as Jenn was reawakened to what she experienced as a transgender child and teen (who had, herself, come out as trans at the age of 13), and learned how parental support, unheard of in her day, could look like.
In 1998, two years after Danielle's gender-affirmation surgery (known as sex-reassignment surgery at the time), Evelyn asked if Danielle could stay in Jenn's Portland-area home during her recovery from second-stage clitoroplasty surgery with Dr. Toby Meltzer.
Meeting Danielle and seeing for herself the positive outcomes that could result from parental affirmation of gender-diverse identity and expression in young people, Jenn began shifting her thinking from trans-advocacy being primarily a reactive adult-centred matter of human and civil rights, to a proactive opportunity for relieving generational trans trauma and stigmatization.
In 2006, Jenn Burleton encouraged Evelyn Lindenmuth's involvement during the first year of Trans Youth Family Advocates' operation.
In June of 2006, Jenn Burleton made a connection through the TransFamily Yahoo! Group with Vicky S., the parent of a young transgender girl. Vicky asked for Jenn's support and advice regarding a divisive custody battle centered around her support for her transgender daughter, and the daughter's father, Kevin, who was not supportive.
This became Jenn Burleton's first direct interaction with a family in which the child's transgender identity was the focal point of a custody dispute.
Vicky S. shared an extensive amount of material with Jenn Burleton to bring her up-to-speed on what had been happening in the case since the child's father, Kevin, had filed an emergency change of custody request on April 17, 2004, after the mother had enrolled her transgender daughter in school as a girl to relieve the trauma she was experiencing due to bullying at her original schoo. In the change of custody request, the father lied and claimed that the mother was planning to subject their child to puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and irreversible surgery. The sheriff's office swept into their home on the morning the child was preparing to start at the new school and placed her with the father.
At the initial custody hearing, the father's attorney, Dominic A. Frank, elicited testimony from known anti-trans, reparative therapy activists, including Dr. James D. Throckmorton, and a Catholic extremist and a member of the notorious anti-gay group National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), Richard Fitzgibbons.
Despite the recommendation of the Court-appointed therapist for Vicky S. to maintain custody of her children, the court ruled in favor of the non-affirming father, Kevin S.
At the request of the mother of the transgender child (who was representing herself in the court appeal), Jenn Burleton submitted "personal narrative testimony" to the Appeals Court in support of the transgender child and her mother.
This is the first overt trans youth advocacy action Jenn Burleton takes.
Jenn Burleton posted the following message in the TransFamily Yahoo! Group:
"(In our trans children and families) I see compassion for others who are different, and children that could change the world for the better...simply by being themselves. I see intelligence, wit, and a depth of soul that I see in very few people. We need a PAC [political action committee] for trans children...to adequately lobby for, educate and advocate on behalf of our children, for many of whom time is of the essence."
The well-being of the child in the Vicky S. v. Kevin S. child custody case was at the forefront of her mind at the time.
There is no contemporaneous screenshot or record of this event found in what few Yahoo! Groups archives remain. There is, however, a relatively contemporaneous reference to this event in an October 31, 2006, TYFA PowerPoint presentation.
The first 'official' step in establishing Jenn Burleton's concept for trans child and youth advocacy was to create a separate discussion group from the TransFamily Yahoo! Group, specifically for those who wanted to discuss the details of forming such an organization.
The group was initially named "TransKids PAC".
To the best of our knowledge, no screenshot or record of that group can be found.
These are contextual excerpts from the transcript of a September 4, 2006, online meeting of three of the four original co-founders of what was then called the Trans Kids Political Action Committee (TKPAC). Shortly thereafter, TKPAC was renamed Trans Youth Family Advocates (TYFA). The fourth co-founder, Shannon Garcia, was not present for this meeting.
The three founders present are:
- Jenn Burleton (neogal99)
- Kim Pearson (havasumoma)
- Amy G
***
neogal99: I'm needing this....been a tough week for me.
amyg: You've been doing sooooooooo much, Jenn!!!
neogal99: Amy..thanks. I'm making up for lost time. I'm just doing the things that I desperately wanted someone to do for me when I was a child.
neogal99: Welcome to the first meeting of the TransKidsPAC group!!!!
havasumoma: YEAH!
amyg: YES!
neogal99: In just 4 short days, we've got 12 dedicated, motivated, aggravated members ready to make things better for our kids!
havasumoma: And one very energetic leader.
neogal99: We've got a radio show lined up, 3 possible television shows, and a budding partnership with PFLAG-TNET....not bad for the first half week!
amyg: Definitely!
neogal99: So, first off, you guys [Jenn referring to the co-founding cisgender parents] are my heroines....I just want to say that.
amyg: Thank you for starting this up, Jenn. I don't feel like a heroine--just helping out my child.
neogal99: [responding to Amy's prior comment] To a kid that prayed every night for Moms like you, trust me....heroine is a mild word 🙂
havasumoma: truthfully, i haven't even had an opportunity to check out all the files you [Jenn] have posted thus far, but I, as a mom with a trans kid, am looking for tools for working with the school...in anticipation of problems that may come up.
neogal99: Such as?
havasumoma: I know this is a biggie for most of us parents. Maybe a what to do first, second, third, etc
[At this point, the meeting continued the discussion of what would become early education (teaching) and advocacy tools that Jenn Burleton would construct over the coming months. The transcript picks up after that.]
neogal99: This isn't about how you raise your child, or whether you're a single mother or not....it's about something our children were BORN with...
neogal99: They wouldn't look twice if it was ADHD....but because it's "sex" related, everyone freaks out. It's about misplaced homophobia, IMHO.
neogal99: We need to educate people to NOT treat this differently. It's not "perversion," it's simply a birth variation, and it's REALLY fixable.
havasumoma: i'm pretty good at writing, so if we could flesh out some ideas as a group, i would be willing to plump them up.
neogal99: 🙂 I am too, but I'm GLAD at this point to let someone else take that on!
havasumoma: especially letters to family and friends and school presentations for school
neogal99: Kim....can I delegate you to check that out and maybe [coordinate] with Amy on what TNET already has in place? [Indicates Jenn Burleton's leadership role at this point.]
neogal99: Let's do this. I will create a folder in the FILES section of TKPAC that is "Weekly Conference Call" and then a subfolder for Week 1. In that folder will be the transcript of this call and also any documents that are generated as a result of this call. We can decide where to put them permanently after that, but then we can see what came of this week's discussion. How does that sound?
havasumoma: pretty good.
neogal99: Also, and this will be the hard part. We should see if we can get some examples of letters from folks for whom, perhaps, things haven't gone so well. We need to become EXPERTS on what types of signals freak out the narrow-minded and uninformed.
havasumoma: so true.
neogal99: That is why I brought up my thing about "passing"....I've spent a LIFETIME watching how people react to this stuff...and since I've been (until now) "stealth", I was the fly on the wall.
havasumoma: i think real step-by-step ways of advocating for your child would be so welcome. I know that is what i was looking for...someone to tell me what to do first.
neogal99: Heading OFF objections before they happen should be one of the goals.
neogal99: OK....can we go back to the parenting thing? What if both parents don't agree? This is my biggest concern, because it is the FIRST hurdle that the family has to overcome, and certainly, traumatic for the child (and their siblings).
havasumoma: that's a really big one, jenn. there are so many variables when there has been that kind of split in the family unit.
neogal99: yes, it is. And there is no way to address them all. But the thing I think we should all begin thinking about are the cases where the custodial parent is threatened simply for supporting their child in the [gender variant] identity...regardless of what other family conflict issues are going on.
neogal99: Mothers are frequently losing custody of their [gender variant] children on the sole basis of supporting their diagnosis and their identity.
neogal99: This is where the long-term outreach of this group with PFLAG can work to create change in the legal and social attitudes about this.
amyg: That will be a HUGE undertaking. Definitely many, many baby steps to make a dent in the system/attitude.
neogal99: We can begin to identify potential ALLIES in local government....in county, state, and local agencies. Educating the local Child Welfare services and District Attorney's offices....offering to do seminars at Legal Ethics and Family Law conferences, etc.
neogal99: The problem is, most of the opposing 'experts' are not gender therapists or, really, experts at all. They are, in general, those predisposed to thinking it's about homosexuality and keeping the kids from growing up gay...
neogal99: Let me know if I get too 'fired up' here...I apologize if that happens. 🙂
amyg: You aren't too fired up, Jenn. We need to harness the energy and focus it.
neogal99: Here is a specific: Identify a church, a local politician, a school official, and a community leader that you think might be sympathetic. Then contact each of them and ask if you can send them some information about the challenges facing families with [gender variant] kids. Then ask if you can follow up with them in a couple of weeks to discuss the materials you sent them.
havasumoma: okay, add it to the list. I don't know who those people even are, but i'll see if i can figure it out.
neogal99: Our first opportunity to get media exposure for this is probably going to be the GenderTalk Radio show. I am willing to go on there, I've outted myself big time, so....que sera sera. We should find out who else is willing to discuss [gender variance] and our kids (no names or faces necessary).
havasumoma: i'd want to be sure i was representing TKPAC appropriately...i'm willing to participate in the radio program, but am unsure how i would be helpful...as a newbie do I really have that much to contribute?
neogal99: Well, the main thing is to think about the words you are going to use. "Passing" is a good example. Think about how those who are listening will receive the message. They aren't as informed or educated on this issue as we are...so not speaking in 'shorthand' is a good thing to watch out for.
neogal99: Thanks SO MUCH, you guys!!!!!
amysgreys715: Thank YOU, Jenn!
neogal99: We're off and running!
END OF TRANSCRIPT
Read the original (redacted for privacy) here.
TYFA tabled at this event and presented at least one workshop. Jenn Burleton attended along with Kim and Shawn Pearson, Shannon Garcia, and Amy G.
Jenn Burleton's friend and Trans Youth Family Advocates (TYFA) vice-president, Kim Pearson, informed Jenn via a short and impersonal phone call that the TYFA Board of Directors had decided on April 21, 2007, to place Jenn on "leave of absence", to take effect immediately.
The vote was taken in violation of the organization's own bylaws. The conditions they placed on Jenn's potential return to the organization she founded were highly anti-transgender in nature.
ChatGPT 5.2 Prompt:
“What was the first all-transgender led transgender child and family organization?”
Here is ChatGPT's response...
“The earliest documented organization that both (a) served transgender children and their families and (b) was led entirely by transgender people is TransActive Gender Center (originally TransActive Gender Project), founded in Portland, Oregon, in 2007.”
Here is what ChatGPT got wrong:
With those corrections, it's accurate to say that TransActive Education & Advocacy was the first all-transgender led organization serving trans children, youth, and families.
Why TransActive qualifies as the first
- From its founding, TransActive was explicitly organized to support transgender and gender-diverse children and youth, and provide family education, peer support, and advocacy through collaboration with other 2SLGBTGQ+ organizations.
- Earlier organizations either:
- Served only transgender adults, or
- Served LGBTQ youth generally, or
- Supported parents and adult family of trans children, but did not center trans leadership.
- TransActive's founders were themselves transgender:
- Jenn Burleton
- Kaig Lightner
- Hayley Klug
- This distinguishes it from contemporaneous parent-led organizations (e.g., cisgender parent advocacy groups) and clinician-run programs.
- This combination - trans children + families served, with governance and leadership by trans adults is the critical differentiator.
This combination – trans children + families served, with governance and leadership by trans adults is the critical differentiator.
By 2007, TransActive Education & Advocacy existed as a purpose-built organization serving transgender/gender-diverse children, youth, and their families, and later funder reporting describes it as transgender-founded and led.
Why earlier candidates do not meet the criteria
- Trans Youth Family Advocates/Allies (TYFA)
- Gender Clinics
- LGBTQ Youth Centers
- Support Groups
TYFA was a pioneering organization founded in 2006 by the same founder of TransActive (trans woman Jenn Burleton), but its co-founders were cisgender parents of trans children and youth. Starting in May 2007, it was led exclusively by cisgender parents.
Modern gender clinics, sometimes called gender identity clinics, date back to the early 1960s and were led almost exclusively by cisheteronormative physicians, psychotherapists, and sex researchers. These clinics served transsexual/transgender adults, with a few treating children, focused primarily on "conversion therapy" models practiced by Richard Green, George Rekers, Joseph Nicolosi, and Kenneth Zucker. This continued until the late 1980s, after which some (not all) clinics began working with increasing numbers of gender diverse children and youth using what became known as the "Dutch Protocol".
Until the 2000s, virtually all of these gender clinics were cisheteronormative supremacist (CHS) in both practice and function.
In the aftermath of the Stonewall Uprising, LGB Centers (the "T" and "Q" were added later) served a broad scope of sexual orientation-related adult populations. When youth were served, it was primarily teens aged 16 and older. After use of the LGBTQ acronym heightened trans and queer visibility, trans-led services and support became more common; however, the focus was still primarily on older teens and adults.
Louise Lawrence began coordinating the first United States-based (underground) support groups for adult crossdressers and transsexuals in the 1940s. She was later joined in doing this by Virginia Prince, who formed a support network that was geared specifically toward heterosexual crossdressers.
Non-profits like Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) were almost exclusively focused on serving the adult parents and families of lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals.
Later, the International Foundation for Gender Education era (IFGE) local support groups for trans adults became more common but did not function formally as child-and-family support organizations.
Read more about:
TransActive Timeline: 2007-2024
Approximately 6 weeks after her coerced departure from a leadership role in Trans Youth Family Advocates (TYFA), Jenn Burleton's vision of a wider scope, more 'actively engaged' service organization for trans/nonbinary children, youth, and their families led to her sharing that vision with her colleagues Zan Gibbs and Rej Joo from the Portland (OR) Sexual Minority Youth Resource Center (SMYRC) organization during the 2007 Portland Pride Festival.
She named it TransActive Education & Advocacy.
At the request of the mother of the transgender child (who was representing herself in the court appeal), Jenn Burleton submitted "personal narrative testimony" to the Appeals Court in support of the transgender child and her mother.
This is the first overt trans youth advocacy action Jenn Burleton takes.
Throughout June and July, Jenn began formulating the structure of TransActive Education & Advocacy and discussing with others how it would be different from Trans Youth Family Advocates. One of her first decisions was to invited other transgender-spectrum individuals to join the Board of Directors. She wanted to continue serving the predominantly cisheteronormative families of transgender-spectrum youth, but she wanted to center the lived experiences of trans adults in leadership roles.
The first two people she approached about co-founding TransActive with her were Hayley Klug and Kaig Lightner.
Jenn Burleton posted the following message in the TransFamily Yahoo! Group:
"(In our trans children and families) I see compassion for others who are different, and children that could change the world for the better...simply by being themselves. I see intelligence, wit, and a depth of soul that I see in very few people. We need a PAC [political action committee] for trans children...to adequately lobby for, educate and advocate on behalf of our children, for many of whom time is of the essence."
The well-being of the child in the Vicky S. v. Kevin S. child custody case was at the forefront of her mind at the time.
There is no contemporaneous screenshot or record of this event found in what few Yahoo! Groups archives remain. There is, however, a relatively contemporaneous reference to this event in an October 31, 2006, TYFA PowerPoint presentation.
The first 'official' step in establishing Jenn Burleton's concept for trans child and youth advocacy was to create a separate discussion group from the TransFamily Yahoo! Group, specifically for those who wanted to discuss the details of forming such an organization.
The group was initially named "TransKids PAC".
To the best of our knowledge, no screenshot or record of that group can be found.
These are contextual excerpts from the transcript of a September 4, 2006, online meeting of three of the four original co-founders of what was then called the Trans Kids Political Action Committee (TKPAC). Shortly thereafter, TKPAC was renamed Trans Youth Family Advocates (TYFA). The fourth co-founder, Shannon Garcia, was not present for this meeting.
The three founders present are:
- Jenn Burleton (neogal99)
- Kim Pearson (havasumoma)
- Amy G
***
neogal99: I'm needing this....been a tough week for me.
amyg: You've been doing sooooooooo much, Jenn!!!
neogal99: Amy..thanks. I'm making up for lost time. I'm just doing the things that I desperately wanted someone to do for me when I was a child.
neogal99: Welcome to the first meeting of the TransKidsPAC group!!!!
havasumoma: YEAH!
amyg: YES!
neogal99: In just 4 short days, we've got 12 dedicated, motivated, aggravated members ready to make things better for our kids!
havasumoma: And one very energetic leader.
neogal99: We've got a radio show lined up, 3 possible television shows, and a budding partnership with PFLAG-TNET....not bad for the first half week!
amyg: Definitely!
neogal99: So, first off, you guys [Jenn referring to the co-founding cisgender parents] are my heroines....I just want to say that.
amyg: Thank you for starting this up, Jenn. I don't feel like a heroine--just helping out my child.
neogal99: [responding to Amy's prior comment] To a kid that prayed every night for Moms like you, trust me....heroine is a mild word 🙂
havasumoma: truthfully, i haven't even had an opportunity to check out all the files you [Jenn] have posted thus far, but I, as a mom with a trans kid, am looking for tools for working with the school...in anticipation of problems that may come up.
neogal99: Such as?
havasumoma: I know this is a biggie for most of us parents. Maybe a what to do first, second, third, etc
[At this point, the meeting continued the discussion of what would become early education (teaching) and advocacy tools that Jenn Burleton would construct over the coming months. The transcript picks up after that.]
neogal99: This isn't about how you raise your child, or whether you're a single mother or not....it's about something our children were BORN with...
neogal99: They wouldn't look twice if it was ADHD....but because it's "sex" related, everyone freaks out. It's about misplaced homophobia, IMHO.
neogal99: We need to educate people to NOT treat this differently. It's not "perversion," it's simply a birth variation, and it's REALLY fixable.
havasumoma: i'm pretty good at writing, so if we could flesh out some ideas as a group, i would be willing to plump them up.
neogal99: 🙂 I am too, but I'm GLAD at this point to let someone else take that on!
havasumoma: especially letters to family and friends and school presentations for school
neogal99: Kim....can I delegate you to check that out and maybe [coordinate] with Amy on what TNET already has in place? [Indicates Jenn Burleton's leadership role at this point.]
neogal99: Let's do this. I will create a folder in the FILES section of TKPAC that is "Weekly Conference Call" and then a subfolder for Week 1. In that folder will be the transcript of this call and also any documents that are generated as a result of this call. We can decide where to put them permanently after that, but then we can see what came of this week's discussion. How does that sound?
havasumoma: pretty good.
neogal99: Also, and this will be the hard part. We should see if we can get some examples of letters from folks for whom, perhaps, things haven't gone so well. We need to become EXPERTS on what types of signals freak out the narrow-minded and uninformed.
havasumoma: so true.
neogal99: That is why I brought up my thing about "passing"....I've spent a LIFETIME watching how people react to this stuff...and since I've been (until now) "stealth", I was the fly on the wall.
havasumoma: i think real step-by-step ways of advocating for your child would be so welcome. I know that is what i was looking for...someone to tell me what to do first.
neogal99: Heading OFF objections before they happen should be one of the goals.
neogal99: OK....can we go back to the parenting thing? What if both parents don't agree? This is my biggest concern, because it is the FIRST hurdle that the family has to overcome, and certainly, traumatic for the child (and their siblings).
havasumoma: that's a really big one, jenn. there are so many variables when there has been that kind of split in the family unit.
neogal99: yes, it is. And there is no way to address them all. But the thing I think we should all begin thinking about are the cases where the custodial parent is threatened simply for supporting their child in the [gender variant] identity...regardless of what other family conflict issues are going on.
neogal99: Mothers are frequently losing custody of their [gender variant] children on the sole basis of supporting their diagnosis and their identity.
neogal99: This is where the long-term outreach of this group with PFLAG can work to create change in the legal and social attitudes about this.
amyg: That will be a HUGE undertaking. Definitely many, many baby steps to make a dent in the system/attitude.
neogal99: We can begin to identify potential ALLIES in local government....in county, state, and local agencies. Educating the local Child Welfare services and District Attorney's offices....offering to do seminars at Legal Ethics and Family Law conferences, etc.
neogal99: The problem is, most of the opposing 'experts' are not gender therapists or, really, experts at all. They are, in general, those predisposed to thinking it's about homosexuality and keeping the kids from growing up gay...
neogal99: Let me know if I get too 'fired up' here...I apologize if that happens. 🙂
amyg: You aren't too fired up, Jenn. We need to harness the energy and focus it.
neogal99: Here is a specific: Identify a church, a local politician, a school official, and a community leader that you think might be sympathetic. Then contact each of them and ask if you can send them some information about the challenges facing families with [gender variant] kids. Then ask if you can follow up with them in a couple of weeks to discuss the materials you sent them.
havasumoma: okay, add it to the list. I don't know who those people even are, but i'll see if i can figure it out.
neogal99: Our first opportunity to get media exposure for this is probably going to be the GenderTalk Radio show. I am willing to go on there, I've outted myself big time, so....que sera sera. We should find out who else is willing to discuss [gender variance] and our kids (no names or faces necessary).
havasumoma: i'd want to be sure i was representing TKPAC appropriately...i'm willing to participate in the radio program, but am unsure how i would be helpful...as a newbie do I really have that much to contribute?
neogal99: Well, the main thing is to think about the words you are going to use. "Passing" is a good example. Think about how those who are listening will receive the message. They aren't as informed or educated on this issue as we are...so not speaking in 'shorthand' is a good thing to watch out for.
neogal99: Thanks SO MUCH, you guys!!!!!
amysgreys715: Thank YOU, Jenn!
neogal99: We're off and running!
END OF TRANSCRIPT
Read the original (redacted for privacy) here.
Jenn Burleton's friend and Trans Youth Family Advocates (TYFA) vice-president, Kim Pearson, informed Jenn via a short and impersonal phone call that the TYFA Board of Directors had decided on April 21, 2007, to place Jenn on "leave of absence", to take effect immediately.
The vote was taken in violation of the organization's own bylaws. The conditions they placed on Jenn's potential return to the organization she founded were highly anti-transgender in nature.
