The Simply Equality podcast

You gotta start somewhere!!

July 29, 2020 Season 1 Episode 1
The Simply Equality podcast
You gotta start somewhere!!
Show Notes Transcript

Hi and welcome to this brand new podcast focusing on the lived experiences of disabled and LGBT+ people.  Listen as the host, Sarah Stephenson-Hunter, talks about the reason why it’s called “Simply Equality” and shares a little of her own story of being blind and trans.  You can find out more about Sarah and the work she does as a disability and LGBT+ speaker, activist and trainer at www.simplyequality.com  and contact her via info@simplyequality.com - sit back, listen and make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes!  

Sarah Stephenson-Hunter:

Hi, and welcome to the Simply Equality podcast. My name is Sarah Stephenson-Hunter and I'm your host. This is a brand new podcast. I'm really excited that you've taken the time to listen to this short intro episode. I really hope that going forward you'll really like what you hear and you'll want to come on this journey with me. This podcast is is going to be about foregrounding the real lived experiences of people who are both LGBT+ and disabled. There's a lot of work and a lot of podcasts out there that already focus on the experiences of LGBT people, and disabled people. But as far as I'm aware, there isn't one that focuses on that intersection of both of those identities. And so that's why I decided to start this podcast. I thought, why not? Let's give it a go. How hard can it be? Yeah, it's gonna be a learning curve. So bear with me. If there's a few technical issues on the way I'm very new to this. So why is it called Simply Equality? Well, there's some really easy reasons why. Firstly, I've already got a website, www.simplyequality.com and on there, I talk about the work I do in terms of speaking and educating on issues of disability and LGBT+ equality. I've spoken at some conferences including the Stonewall workplace conference. I have done some stuff for places like Nottinghamshire Police, Nottinghamshire County Council, City Council, I've done some work in Oxford. And during this whole pandemic, I've also done some online sessions. So I already do some work in this area, I've already got the name Simply Equality and the essence of what Simply Equality is about it's that whole idea that, I think when it comes to talking about equality, it's very easy to make it all very complicated. And don't get me wrong. There are some complex theories and concepts and some nuanced discussions that have to take place in order for us to understand the issues. But I think sometimes that complexity can scare people.And yes, I'm a so called expert I obviously work in this field. But my goodness, I don't know all the answers. I'm still learning as we go. And so for me, this idea of Simply Equality is that when we're talking about equality, regardless of what aspect of equality that is, I think we need to boil it down to the fact that it's simply an issue of people having equality of outcome, and having equality of opportunity, regardless of their situation. And so that's why it's called Simply Equality. As I've said, I'm going to focus on featuring interviews with people who are both LGBT+ and disabled. I've already done a couple of interviews and I honestly can't wait to share them with you. I've got some exciting guests lined up some really great interviews you're going to hear from quite a range of people. So I really can't wait to share that with you. But before we get into that, since this is a new podcast, I thought you might want to know a little bit about me. As I've said, my name is Sarah Stephenson-Hunter. I currently live in Oxford. And I have a wonderful wife called Claire. She's amazing. We've been married for my gosh, we've just celebrated our third wedding anniversary. She's fantastic and she's amazing. My own experience in terms of this podcast is that I am disabled. I am totally blind. I also have a type of rheumatoid arthritis and I have had some mental health issues on and off over the years. I am trans. If you hadn't known that already Yes, I am a woman with a trans history. I began my transition in October 2013. That began quite a painful journey of transition, which has come with many sacrifices. I am happily married now but at the point at which I began my transition, I was married to a woman I'd been married to since 1996. I had three children who were quite young. And for me the decision to transition was by no means an easy one. But it got to the point in my life where basically and this is gonna sound melodramatic, but I mean it, it was a question of transition or die. The pressure of living with this internal sense of not being the real me was getting to be a point where I thought if I, if I can't do something about this, then life is not worth living anymore. And I don't say that lightly. I know you may be listening to this thinking, Well, you know that you are trans people are selfish, you know? What about your family? What about your kids? What about your wife? Yes, that was difficult. And one of the hardest decisions I had to make. And one of the hardest things I had to do was when I had to tell my kids that I was leaving the family home. And because they were quite young couldn't explain fully what that was about. I'll always remember their reactions. And then for me, I had to move out, I had to setup a house on my own. Having never lived on my own for a long time and being totally blind trying to cope with the issues around that and rebuild my life. I was terrified about what reaction I would get. Thankfully, at the time, I had really great support at work. At that stage, I was working at the University of Nottingham. I had some fantastic colleagues who gave me some great support and they, they, they were really there for me. In terms of friends, yeah, I lost a lot of friends. Historically, I've been quite involved in the Christian church. This, this podcast isn't going to be about that. But for me, that's part of my context. My ex wife and I were quite involved in churches. In fact, I was even a church leader at one stage. And basically, the church is not renowned for its positive attitudes towards LGBT issues. And sadly, that was my experience. I was basically told that if I didn't transition, they would support me and pray for me and help me and help us as a family. But if I did transition then I was going against Gods will, and so that wasn't something they could support. And so sadly, upon transitioning, I basically lost all of my Christian friends. And I think I've been to church twice since in the past seven years. I'd still regard myself as a person of faith. But I'm deeply sceptical of organised religion. And I think there's a lot of work that needs to be done on that area. And there is some work that is being done. But sadly, I feel it's too late for me. For me, being trans has has has been okay. It's had its challenges. But it's been very much me discovering who I am as a person. And I have no regrets about that journey. The interesting thing was, though, that in coming out trans I thought, well, this is fine. You know, I've lived my life as somebody with a disability. I was first diagnosed as having issues with my health aged 2. I first had eye surgery age 7 when I had cataract surger, you know in the days when you were in hospital for three weeks per eye. It's very different than that these days you're in and out. I think between the ages of well 7 and 14 I had around 50 plus eye operations, 200 hospital visits. And those hospital visits involved travelling from Northumberland where I grew up, travelling, to Windsor, down south. So obviously, lots of disruption to family life, lots of disruption to schooling, and just lots of issues generally. I foolishly thought, however that because I'd navigated the world of disability and had worked previously in work around that area that, you know, well, I've had experience of one minority group, of disability, surely coming out trans and entering into the LGBT community, I'm going to be fine. I'm going to understand some of the issues and some of the dynamics. And yes, to some extent, I did, but in other ways, boy was I in for a shock. I suppose I hadn't anticipated that just because you're a member of one equality group, does not mean that you're going to be treated the same within another equality group. So for example, you know, I thought that because I was disabled that, you know, if I started going to LGBT events, LGBT forums, that well they'd be accessible, that people would understand issues of disability. No, no, no, no, that's not true. And similarly, you know, that being LGBT that well, you know, LGBT people would understand the issues. And again, no, that's not the case believe you me, you can find homophobic, biphobic, transphobic people within the disability community and vice versa. And so if you like that that's why my life took me down the road it did. I decided to be as open and honest as I could be about my own story, to try and share the lived experience of being disabled of being trans in all the work that I do. I do try and share that real humanity. Because I think often in the discussions that happen and the debates and the arguments, we lose sense that you know, all these statistics of how many people are disabled, how many people are trans, issues around being gay, all of those things. They're not statistics they're people, they're people like me and so that's really motivated me to do the work I've done. I have done quite a bit of work with the likes of Stonewall. I was a Stonewall rolemodel of the year at one stage. And again, I'm not saying this because I'm the best disabled person there is or I'm the best LGBT person there is, oh my gosh, do I have my shortcomings, just talk to my wife, she'll tell you. But I want to really be open and honest so that people can see that, you know, we are, we are human beings. And actually, there's lot we share together, and there's a lot we can learn from each other. So that's, that's the very basic potted history. There's a lot more I could say there's a lot more to my story. But the purpose of this podcast going forward is to foreground the experiences of other people. I've got some really exciting guests lined up. And so as we go through, you may find out more about me through that, but I want to really speak to other people. So I'm going to finish in a minute. I again, I'm really, really thankful that you've checked this out. I hope you continue to do so this was just a bit of an introductory episode. I'll be launching the first full episode in a couple of weeks. So please make sure you're signed up to all the good places to get podcasts. Please do check out that website simplyequality.com. If you want to get in touch with me, you can email me at info@simplyequality.com. And on the website, you can find links to LinkedIn and Facebook and all the other socials. But really, I just at this point want to thank you for being part of this. Thank you for listening. Take care and I'll speak to you soon. Thanks bye