Welcome to Liverpool Trans!

Hello and welcome to Liverpool Trans! This website has been created to share positive stories about trans people, their experiences, and the wider trans community.

As Transgender Day of Visibility (31st March) is fast approaching, we thought it would be fitting for our first blog to talk about the importance of positive visibility in the trans community.

Trans media stories have seen a dramatic rise in coverage over the last couple of years, and at last, it’s starting to look positive!

For literally decades, the majority of trans media coverage had always been deliberately abusive and mocking of the trans community, providing inaccurate information and enforcing negative stereotypes (you only have to do a quick online search to unearth some of the car-crash articles that have previously been in the tabloid press).

Thankfully, we’re now beginning to see lots of positive, and more importantly, truthful pieces being written both by and about trans people. The rise of social media as a platform for activism has allowed trans people, who previously may have been isolated by society, to connect with each other and voice their frustration with the negativity and abuse of trans people within the media. This has also been recognised by a number of groups in the UK such as Trans Media Watch; a charity aimed at improving media coverage for trans and intersex people, and most recently All About Trans; a fabulous project which has been helping to increase the media’s understanding of trans people and issues to create more positive and sensitive trans portrayals.

We’re also seeing the emergence of many prominent trans figures speaking publicly against transphobia which has been invaluable for increasing trans awareness and visibility. Some of which are becoming household names, such as Laverne Cox; an American actress and LGBT advocate, most notably starring in the comedy-drama series ‘Orange Is The New Black’, and Paris Lees; a UK journalist and activist who has wrote for The Independent, The Guardian, DIVA, Vice and Attitude Magazine.

More locally, Liverpool has come on in leaps and bounds for trans awareness and visibility. Over the past couple of years the trans community has had a growing presence at Liverpool Pride, and last summer marked the first trans inclusive community space. Trans youth have also been given a voice, with the launch of ‘By The Way’; an online resource made by and for gender variant youth in Liverpool which has been used in various schools across Merseyside. We’ve also seen the launch of ‘THE Action Youth’, a brand new trans youth group held within YPAS (Young Person’s Advisory Service).

On a larger scale, the city was given an amazing opportunity of hosting the ‘April Ashley: Portrait of a Lady’ exhibition at the Museum of Liverpool in partnership with Homotopia. The exhibition which ended in March, featured an archive of April’s life and transition, along with a timeline of legislative change for trans people. The archive was visited by over 930,000 visitors in 17 months. That’s 930,000 people who now have a broader understanding and awareness of what it means to be trans!

We’ve still got a long way to go to in improving trans equality and we believe that positive visibility is going to be key. We’ll have a wide range of guest bloggers from across the community posting on our blog, however if you would like to get involved and make positive change we would love to hear from you! To contribute, please send your submissions via our contact page.

Dan Stone