Transgender History Week
By Alice, a VAST Volunteer
If you want your organisation to be more inclusive of LGBTQ+ people, the single best thing you can do is research what this hatred actually looks like, by either asking LGBTQ+ within or outside of your organisation.
Alice Penhill
Inclusive Volunteering Buddy
A bit about me...
I’m Alice, I’m 23 years old and I’ve proudly been a trans woman for nearly three years. . To give you a better idea of who I am you should know that my current fixation is the Dungeons and Dragons campaign that I run for my friends.
My initial interest in volunteering came from a recommendation from the job centre after I expressed an interest in working within a truly LGTBQ+ inclusive area rather than the corporate world where inclusivity is only guaranteed as long as it remains profitable.
After this recommendation I began looking into VAST and the roles available, and that’s where I found the “Inclusive Volunteer Buddy” role. It immediately spoke to me, from there one thing led to another and now here I am with a variety of otherwise unachievable experiences under my belt.
But in the sense of staying on topic, I’ve been volunteering with VAST for nearly a full year now and I’ve loved every minute of it. From helping to make phone calls to planning and attending a 200-person conference, I couldn’t list everything I’ve done, even if I tried to.
I loved helping with planning and preparation for the conference because watching all the pieces fall into place was really exciting, but even more so, was being a part of the conference itself. There is something so special about seeing 200 people in one room here for something that you helped to piece together and getting to see the fruits of mine, and my colleagues labour come together; it was magical.
Being truly inclusive in practice, not just on paper
Moving on to the important part of the conversation now… namely, the way organisations respond to LGBTQ+ people and more specifically, transgender people.
A great place to start for any person or organisation to become inclusive of LGBTQ+ people is establishing a zero-tolerance policy for hatred or abuse of LGBTQ+ people.
Whilst this seems like the obvious first step, most organisations refer to the ‘rule of law’ when it comes to what is considered abuse and hatred. But, as many LGBTQ+ people will know, the rule of law doesn’t cover it, and is considered to be rapidly degrading the protections given to LGBTQ+ people.
So if you want your organisation to truly be more inclusive of LGBTQ+ people, the single best thing you can do is research what this hatred actually looks like. How? By asking people from the LGBTQ+ community, whether that’s within or outside of your organisation.
However, if we are to focus on specifically trans people, there are a huge number of things that an organisation MUST do if they are to avoid excluding trans people:
- Gender neutral toilets, either instead of or as well as gendered toilets, are essential for both removing the ever-mounting pressure that comes with gendered spaces but also to make sure that you’re including non-binary people when you talk about transgender people.
- Put period products in all toilet facilities, including non-female toilets. This is another important step towards inclusivity because it immediately shows that you’ve considered trans men and other non-female people who have periods. Not all women have periods, and not all people who have periods are women.
- Pronouns in email signatures and on your organisation’s website is another way to show that your organisation is not going to assume the identity of anyone within it or without it.
- In forms and questionnaires, clearly label where legal identifiers are required for legal purposes only. When not required for legal purposes, say that personal pronouns and preferred identifiers are acceptable instead, and allow these to be freely used.
- Above all else, you cannot be afraid to ask transgender people within your organisation if anything needs to be changed, and about what is and isn’t working. Nobody will know better than those affected.
To conclude I want to mention both SAGE (Sexuality and Gender Empowerment) and Project 93 for their work to improve the lives of LGBTQ+ people in Stoke-on-Trent.
Especially Project 93 who I currently have the pleasure of working alongside to run an LGBTQ+ support group (look to Project 93 social media if you’d like to learn more).
And of course, a huge thank you to VAST for allowing me to speak on this topic this trans history week.
