About Us

The history of Gender Creative Kids goes back to the summer of 2010. That’s when a small group of parents, brought into contact by Dr. Shuvo Ghosh from the Montreal Children’s Hospital, met in a Montreal park for the very first time to share their experiences. These concerned parents noticed the striking lack of resources and support and wished to create an innovative structure to respond to the needs of families as well as for trans and non-binary children. Huge thanks to Annie Pullen Sansfaçon, Akiko Asano, Katia Giannikakis and Kimberley Manning, the founding members of our organization. We will forever be grateful for your vision, your spirit, your dedication and your volunteer involvement that allowed for this organization to become a reality.

The initial idea from this group of parents gained momentum when a social work action research project was implemented that ran from 2011 to 2013 and was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). These meetings, which took place over the course of a year, generated a spirit of cohesiveness and solidarity among the participating parents who then decided to formalize the structure and continue their activities beyond the length of the research project. In addition, two of the co-founders of the organization, Annie Pullen Sansfaçon and Kimberley Manning, both university professors, organized the "National Workshop of Gender Creative Kids" conference in Montreal in October 2012.

A general assembly is called and Gender Creative Kids is officially launched in 2013.

Over the year, through numerous social and political initiatives, Gender Creative Kids helped shed light on and normalize children’s transitions and journeys. It's also the year that the organization got its first logo designed by the children during a group activity!

2016 is when our members got actively involved in ensuring the implementation of Bill 103. This decisive bill in Québec sought to strengthen the fight against transphobia and improve the situation of underage trans people.

The year 2017 marks an important turning point in our history, in part thanks to the active involvement of our initial financial partner, TD Bank. That’s when the first employees of the organization joined the team and our support and outreach activities grew. The creative agency lg2, pro bono partner of the organization, also started getting involved, allowing the creation of the project The You Inside featuring Sam, the first transgender educational tool in the world, recipient of over 20 prestigious international design prizes, including a silver lion at Cannes and a Grand Srat 2018 in Montreal.

250 Sam dolls are offered for free to schools and experts in Canada to fight against transphobia in school environments.

More than ever, we're becoming a leading and essential community organization, carrying the plurality of voices of trans and non-binary children as well as their families’ on a provincial, national, and worldwide scale! In the summer of 2019, over a hundred of our members marched together with us in the Pride Parade and that same summer we collaborated with the art organization, MU, to paint a mural for one of our community partners, Head & Hands.

In the spring of 2020, we moved into our first official office at the old Cadbury chocolate factory in Montreal. This was also the year that we hired two new full-time employees, effectively doubling our staff! With more hands on deck, we were able to offer even more services to our members including Dear Parent and Gender Essentials.

Thanks to a generous grant from the department of Women and Gender Equality (WAGE) Canada, we hit the ground running in 2021 with the introduction of three new employees!