RSBC Unseen Episode 7 - Pride

Join Senior Activity officer, Fran, with Alex, Eliza and Jordan as they chat about the RSBC LGBTQIA+ Group how it came to be, what community looks likes at the intersection of queerness and vision impairment and how art, creativity and activisim can shape respresentation within and beyond the LGBTQIA+ community. 

Transcript

Fran  0:02  
Hello, hello, and welcome to another edition of the Rsbc unseen podcast. And this is a special edition, no less, because it is our celebration of pride. I'm joined here by members of the Rsbc queer youth group, and we are here to talk a little bit about what we've done this year and what we're looking forward to. I'm Fran Senior Activity officer with the RSBC, pronouns, she/they, and I'm joined by three of our lovely group members. Would you like to introduce yourselves? I'll kick it off with Alex.

Alex  0:40  
Hey folks, my name is Alex, and I'm go with pronouns, he/him. 

Fran  0:47  
Thanks, Alex. How about you, Jordan? 

Jordan  0:49  
I am Jordan. I go by, they/them.

Fran  0:53  
Perfect. Eliza?

Eliza  0:56  
Hello. I'm Eliza, and I go by, she/her.

Fran  0:59  
That's our group for today, and we've got three old timers, people who've been in the group since its inception, really. So it's lovely to be joined by you today. Alex, perhaps you could start things off by giving a brief overview of the group and kind of reflecting on some of our recent projects and meetings. 

Alex  1:17  
Sure, the Rsbc, LGBQIA+ group chat and subsequently zoom meetings started approximately around February 2024   when we all gathered for the very first time. And initially the sessions were more like just a nice get together where we talk about media and just r egular stuff, school and other priorities. 

Alex  1:43  
But from the session number three, we started to have a segment called queer icon where each member of the group would talk about one of the selected queer icon, or both fictional or non fictional, which helped to raise some awareness and educate about people who fought or helped to improve quality of life for Rainbow people.

Alex  2:16  
Yeah. Also, as our group started to progress. We started to have collaborations with some other charities, including plus charity, which focused on the 'plus' aspect of LGBTQIA+.

Alex  2:34  
And we also have a group chat with German group, which unfortunately I was not able to attend, but it was definitely helped to have a cultural exchange and to know what it's like to be in another country cultural differences when it comes to queerness.

Alex  2:54  
Yeah. So currently, the group is still going on tw o years and strong. We also produce some other projects, as will be mentioned a little bit later, we have a zine, we are doing this podcast,  we did last year as well, and we also did posts and artwork for trans visibility month. And fingers crossed, more great things to come. 

Fran  3:21  
Totally, thanks Ale x. That was a really good overview, much better than I could have recalled. We've actually been treated by Alex's memory, because when we play some games in the group, we do like pop song trivia, where one the name of one song has to include a word that's in the name of the next song, and Alex is as yet unbeaten in that game. Yeah. Eliza, Jordan, any quick highlights that you've had of various projects we've done? What was your highlight? Eliza

Eliza  3:51  
Well, we also like chatted to the Mosaic Trust, which is a charity that I think is, is, like, LGBTQIA+ and like disability based. So that was, that was pretty cool. And also, yeah, I really liked when we met with the German group, and it was really interesting to see kind of the cultural differences, and we are hoping to meet up with them again.

Fran  4:22  
Yes, sure. I think collaborations has been a really important part of this group, and it's meant that we can kind of reflect on the positive sides of being part of this queer community, and that kind of solidarity and collaboration has been really important. Yeah, Jordan's also been part of our kind of broader Whatsapp group. So for anyone interested, Jordan, maybe you can talk about how the WhatsApp group works. 

Jordan  4:44  
My highlight would definitely h ave to be seeing the art that people create, just seeing the strength within people in this community. Our community is quite the niche inside of a niche, can't you say 

Fran  4:58  
Thank you so much Jordan, that's probably a nice place to bring us on to our next point, which is to talk about Trans Day of visibility and what our group produced for it. 

Jordan  5:09  
 The group produced multiples of statements and artworks for the for the event.

Fran  5:16  
So recently, as I'm sure you're aware, the Supreme Court made a decision that the terms woman and sex in the Equality Act of 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex. Let me throw it over to Jordan. Perhaps you can reflect on that a little. 

Jordan  5:33  
I will say that it provides fear for trans people everywhere. 

Fran  5:37  
Eliza, is there anything you'd like to add?

Eliza  5:41  
Yeah, to be honest. Like, when it came out, I was really shocked, and didn't expect it, because it literally happened, like, a couple of days after, li ke the Trans Day visibility, and I just found that, like, wow. Like, you know, why did they choose it kind of right after, but also it just shocked me, like I didn't really even know that it was something to be considered, but it was like being considered behind the scenes, but it's really affected, like my friends who are trans because they feel kind of like they are not safe anymore and that they can't go about and do general things, because they feel that they might get judgement or like criticism, and also they kind of worry about what this means for them and their future, and also just generally, for the trans kind of community, and how it might kind of,  not destroy the community, but kind of make it harder to be ourselves. 

Fran  6:46  
Jo rdan, did you have anything you wanted to add?

Jordan  6:49  
People, people who aren't near the trans community, think that it is protecting the cis women. It is not. It is driving a barrier further between people 

Fran  7:03  
So, who wants to kick things off. Alex, maybe you could talk a little bit about what we're including in the zine. 

Alex  7:09  
Sure, the zi ne definitely includes some nice and uplifting things that can help, first of all, raise awareness about the community, and secondly, just be a nice tool for allies. So it includes lots of quotes from songs media regarding LGBT or just Rainbow causes, as well as some artwork that represents the community, at least from our perspectives. And yeah, just some bold statements, but in polite and positive manner. So, yeah, we all really want equality. We don't want world domination. So it's just something positive and polite. 

Fran  7:57  
Totally, yeah, I think I like how you're saying it can be used as a tool. It's kind of it's a collection of various things that we've reflected on over the last year and a half. At least one of the things we've got in there is a recommended reading list, which kind of relates to what Alex was saying about  our queer media recommendations earlier in our conversation. 

Alex  8:19  
Yeah, yeah. And I really want to emphasise importance of media as it definitely helps to  have a better awareness and better reflection of the community. Because one of the key problems that I think, especially currently for the trans community and people outside of that, is that it's very poorly represented and it's very negatively represented in mainstream media. So I know lots of people who are unfortunately transphobic, and it's mainly because of negative aspect, negative portrayal of trans people. So it is an inaccurate and actually misleading portrayal of this community, of that community. 

Alex  9:02  
And even right before we started to record, I was on Tiktok, and five minutes before that our podcast, there was a video that portrayed, once again, trans people in wrong light, in incorrect light, which unfortunately helps, essentially helps transphobic people to thrive. And I think having media recommendations and recently is definitely helps to debunk some of those stereotypes created by media and essentially erase that negativity and show the other sides, better side of the community. 

Fran  9:38  
Yeah, I think certainly in a world where we're dealing with so much misinformation, particularly surrounding the trans community, it's important that we're kind of setting the record straight from our perspective, and showing some solidarity with how we feel about trans people and how trans people are welcomed in our group. Eliza, did you want to add anything?

Eliza  9:59  
Yeah, well. I think the like scene is a really cool project, because we can kind of try and, not advertise, but kind of like, just show our community and like show, kind of the stuff that we do, but also like, recommend things. So, as Alex said, so that we can try and show that it's, you know, that what's being portrayed in the other side of the media is not actually true.

Eliza  10:27  
And just to kind of, you know, educate people and advocate for, like, our community, and it's really cool to have like, some art involved. I did some art for the Trans Day of visibility, and I'm not sure if that's going to be in there, but ...

Fran  10:48  
Yeah, it's going to be in there. Come on!

Eliza  10:49  
... I'm hoping to do some other art. But yeah, I think it's just a cool project to be able to express yourself. 

Fran  10:57  
Certainly, it's a really nice kind of archive of what our community has been putting together over the last couple years. Really, it's the coming together of a lot of the different strands of our group. We've had queer media, we've had recommended reading lists, and one of our group members, who's produced some amazing artwork for the zine and for Trans Day of visibility, has also kind of framed some of it as like a toolkit for how to be a good ally. So if anyone listening is interested in how to support our group, even if they're not part of the community directly, we're hoping that this resource will be useful for allies as well. 

Fran  11:33  
Okay, I hope that this podcast has given you a little bit of an insight into what the RSBC's, LGBTQIA+ group has been up to over the last year and a bit and kind of the work that they're producing in an increasingly political climate to show solidarity with the LGBT community. And if anyone listening is curious or questioning or wants to join us as an ally, please do get in touch if you're a young person aged between 13 and 25 who has an a vision impairment. This is a space for you. 

Fran  12:05  
If you're an organisation who works with queer youth, we're certainly interested in collaboration, because, as we've kind of reflected over this podcast, an important part of what we do is finding those moments of collection, finding those moments of solidarity and celebrating who we really are. 

Fran  12:22  
So I think that's it. I'm ready to sign off. Thank you so much to Alex, Eliza and Jordan for joining us. It's been great to hear from you. You put it so much better than I ever could. 

Fran  12:34  
Thanks so much everyone for listening. And it's bye from us for now. 

Jordan  12:39  
Good day. Goodbye, my guys, gals and non binary pals!

Eliza  12:45  
Goodbye!

Alex  12:45  
Bye!

Fran  1:17  
Shop,

Transcribed by https://otter.ai