One year ago at Summit in Washington, DC, Cody — a Summit attendee — came up to me with tears of joy in his eyes sharing that his foster child had come out as transgender to him the day before and that the message of positivity that GenderCool presented at Summit had filled him with optimism — rather than the uncertainty and fear that had gripped him up until that point. 

After I met him, I introduced him to GenderCool Champion Stella, and her mom Lisa, and they had a very touching and hopeful conversation.  We’re blessed that these types of interactions have become increasingly common over the past few years — especially at Summit.

Fast forward, and Cody stopped by our virtual booth earlier this week at the exact moment that Stella and her mom were there helping us staff the booth.  The chances of that were quite rare in that Stella and Lisa’s only “shift” was at that exact moment, and it happened to be the one time Cody stopped by. Had he come at any other time this week, we would have missed it.

We decided to capture that moment on video.

It’s moments like these that remind us why we do this work. It’s one more testament to why re-connecting, even if just virtually, is so powerful.

John Grosshandler is a cofounder of the GenderCool Project.