CN Lester

Who did we feature this year?

We profile three of our writers and introduce you to some of their latest articles - from history and religion, to intersectionality and teaching while femme and Black.

If you want to see more diverse content from AMAB, intersex and non-binary people of colour then we are running a scheme to pay writers for their work for an entire year.

[LINK]

Twice now I have surveyed nonbinary people to get a general idea of preferences when it comes to language to describe us. In 2015, nonbinary and genderqueer identities were much more visible (in fiction and non-fiction), and trans issues have been thoroughly discussed in the media.

This time I’ll attempt to improve on the last survey by including some options that were missed out last time, plus any responses that were written into the “other” boxes over 1% of the time. As before, you will not be asked for your name, age, email address, specific location, legal gender, or gender assigned at birth.

What the results will be used for.

It will close at 12pm (noon GMT/UTC London) on Friday 15th January 2016 or thereabouts. (If there’s still plenty of responses coming in, I’ll announce a new closing time.)

Thank you,

Cassian

[LINK]

PS: Last year there were almost 3,000 responses, with some interesting results. If you want to help us to repeat (or exceed) that, please consider sharing in your various social media places!

Tweet

The LGBTQ Representation and Rights Research Initiative based at the University of North Carolina found trans officials are close to invisible. 

They found, since 1977, only 126 trans and gender variant candidates from 30 countries had run in just over 200 races. 

Out of those 126, 48 were elected, and with re-elections they won 72 times.

Andrew Reynolds, a professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina, said politics is a ‘crucial piece’ of how change happens in the world. 

He said: ‘The presence of transgender people in public office does more than give the community an authentic voice in decision-making. It incorporates trans people into established governance structures and offers role models to inspire future generations. It opens doors for further visibility and representation of transgender people, not just in the formal halls of government, but also in the daily lives and fabric of a society.’

While he posited there may be a number of reasons why trans people are not interested in politics, Reynolds put his finger on the ‘gate-keepers’ of politics – afraid that a trans person couldn’t possibly get the funding or backing to be a leader. But in a survey released this week by the European Commission, it showed increased voter comfort with the prospect of having a transgender Prime Minister or President in 21 of 28 nations.

“Shamed be he who thinks evil of it" 

GLAAD launches trans microaggressions photo project #transwk 

We’re looking for contributors for November and December! 

Are you a non-binary person living in the UK or a non-binary person of colour from outside the UK? We have an empty queue of content for November and publish twice a week. 

If you’d like to write about

Fashion and DIY projects

Plug any community work you’re doing

Comics and art

Poetry

Living with intersectionality - race, disability, class, faith, etc. 

Or anything at all!

Then we’d love for you to submit your work - and we’ll boost it as much as we can. Since our brand new website launched a few months ago, we’ve had over 15,000 views and so many awesome articles! We are a website by non-binary people FOR non-binary people and are committed to making sure non-binary people have a platform to promote diversity, beauty, reality and individuality. 

We are also looking for an intersex non-binary contributor for the 26th October, as it’s Intersex Awareness Day. 

The Independent announced this year’s call out for the Rainbow List. If I’ve helped you in any way, please consider emailing [email protected] to let them know why I should be on the list.

Here’s a round up of the past 12 months:

My Genderation: Our ongoing documentary film project continues to thrive. Our films have been shown at festivals, schools, support groups and bedrooms all over the world. Our film Grrl Alex, went viral. Also, our Youtube has had vloggers for the past 10 months, as well. Here’s a playlist of our released films.

Our films have also been shared on NHS Choices. We also made a batch of films for GIRES as a resource for the NHS. We also created a DVD for educational practitioners (so they can support teens in 6th form colleges) called TransEqual. Our film Tayler aired on BBC this year, popping our production cherry.

I’ve also been going to Mermaids secret residentials to show films, to chat with parents and trans youth. We have filmed there a few times (footage yet to be released).

This week we are releasing 8 short films via 4OD as part of the Trans season titled ‘Am I Normal’. This is part of the 25 short films we made from support from All About Trans (who I’m also Patron for)

This year, the LGBT Switchboard had a re-brand and also asked me to be a patron. We made a film with Calum McSwiggan and were also part of another video about LGBT heroes.

This summer marked the 3rd Trans Pride Brighton, which I’ve been on the core team for every year, doing the design, making the merchandise and putting on the film-night. Also, I did photography project on the side, featuring 20+ trans people, which we projected onto Brighton town hall. This event is so important to so many people and I’m proud to help make it happen, even if it is completely exhausting!!

This year also marked the release of my first ever kid’s book called ‘Are you a boy or are you a girl’. It features our character Tiny, who doesn’t reveal if they are a girl or a boy. This is a great introduction to talking about gender and has already had some glowing reviews as well as being used in schools and adored by kids of all ages (this book is aimed towards 5-7 year olds). Here’s a link to press about us in the Independent. 

In the summer, I was also involved with Purple Reign, which is a fantastic LGBT ongoing film project, this year focusing on trans awareness. I was also invited to be on a Purple Reign panel to chat at CMS in London. 

You may also remember the BBC Free Speech video which went viral, having 4.3 million views on Facebook.

I also helped to set up an acting course for all trans people interested in screen or stage, called Trans Acting. It was my idea and it was Catherine McNamara who helped to make this a reality, pulling in the best teaching talent, famous guest visitors and hosting everything at the Royal Central School of Speech & Drama. We also brought a sample class to Scotland’s Queer International Film Festival, where they showed a short film I edited about our course. Here’s some press about the course, in the Observer paper and Guardian online. I’m so proud to have helped set this up.

And finally, I’m casting director, consult and ‘behind the scenes’ film-maker for the Will Young music video. Final auditions are today and the lead role will go to a transguy, making them the first trans masculine person to star in a mainstream music video. We are filming this Thursday.

What a busy year and what’s listed only scratches the surface. Every day I am contacted by people who are reaching out, who tell me about their own journeys or how my vlogging or activism has enhanced theirs. There are exciting times for trans awareness.