What parents know: Informing a wider landscape of support for trans and gender diverse children and adolescents.

• Parents of trans children hold a body of knowledge about supporting trans children. • Families interact with a wide range of services and agencies in their journey to affirm their children's gender. • Parent knowledge and advocacy extends far beyond the medicalised pathway. • Parent knowledge can be used to inform services and agencies to provide more integrated, affirming services. The childhood and adolescence of transgender and gender diverse children and young people (trans children) is contested in many areas, such as media, education, health, and increasingly in the political sphere. Parents and carers of trans children navigate services and societal relations in their journey to affirm their children, from happy childhood to trans adults. This paper reports on the accounts of parents of trans children in Australia. Semi-structured interviews with 18 parents of 15 trans children in four states were analysed to understand the journey holistically, and interactions with services and institutions on this journey. Children ranged in current age from 8 to 21 years, and were 2 to 16 years when they first expressed their trans identity. These journeys highlight moments of gender euphoria, and points of both positive and negative interactions with a range of services such as GPs, specialist healthcare, trans healthcare, schools, foster care, government records, and sporting environments. This research demonstrates that parents have a collective body of knowledge on supporting and affirming trans children that should be drawn on to inform child and youth services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]