Connor Tinlin has had an emotional month. The Scottish father, who is trans, recently flew from Edinburgh to Seattle with his daughter, Iona, to attended Gender Odyssey, a three-day conference for transgender and gender-nonconforming people.

"I have hugged more people in the past couple of weeks than I ever have. I'm British!" he joked during a recent interview with The Stranger.

Before flying to Seattle to attend the conference, neither Tinlin nor Iona had met other transgender parents in their home of Tweeddale. That all changed over a long weekend at Gender Odyssey, which was held in the Washington State Convention Center.

"I typically tend to keep my head down and try not to be a bother to anyone. The idea that not only is it okay to be who I am, it's actually okay to be who I am and celebrate my family, I think that was quite radical for me," he said. "There are support groups out there, but I think it's the holistic aspect of this one that is particularly good," says Tinlin. "It cuts across different gender identities, different races, classes. It brings together a lot of people who would not otherwise be getting together to talk to each other and build links in the community. That's, that's pretty special."

But it's more than that, too. Tinlin said he has also seen Iona, his rambunctious seven year old, become more comfortable in LGBTQ+ spaces, particularly with other children.

"It was a bit funny. I'd never met anybody with transgender parents before," said Iona. "I finally met some trans-parents and that was really nice. ... I met this really nice little girl. She was trans, too. [I learned that] boys can't just do 'boy things,' they can do 'girl things' and girls can do 'boy things.'"

Tinlin said he was astounded how confident Iona had become. "Funnily enough, even though I'm her parent, this is almost the first time in her life that she's said the word 'transgender,'" said Tinlin, who began transitioning more than three years ago. During the conference, Tinlin said he found the most support during the "Mutual Appreciation Society" workshop, in which transgender parents and parents of transgender kids were able to meet and discuss their parenting challenges.

In Scotland, Tinlin said, there weren't any resources for parents like him. "There are trans support groups, but they tend to be quite nano-focused. Trans-women and trans-men don't always get together in the same room."

Ultimately, for Tinlin, his big takeaway from the conference was to strive to be less apologetic, particularly when it comes to making his daughter's school more inclusive.

"There's a real temptation when I go into meetings at [Iona's] school and I say 'I'm sorry I'm bothering you, I don't want to take up your time, I feel bad for giving you this extra problem to deal with," he said. "But this is my family and that is my daughter and she does matter. We might be the only family in the school [like us], as far as they know because not everyone's out. But even if we are the only family, it still matters. All kids like to be told that their families great, you know?"

So would Tinlin recommend Gender Odyssey to other trans parents or trans kids? Absolutely—in fact, he's already trying to plan a trip out to Seattle next year with some family friends in tow.

"Iona and I were laying in bed on Sunday night, completely exhausted, and she asked 'Can we come back next year?'" she said. "And I was like yeah, I think we're going to try to."