Trans Day of Visibility takes place on 31 March every year to celebrate trans and non-binary people and to raise awareness of the discrimination they face worldwide. To mark the day, we spotlight two of our funded partners who are working to improve the lives of trans Londoners - Spectra and Gendered Intelligence.
Manny Hothi, Chief Executive at Trust for London, said:
“More than a quarter of a million people in the UK identify with a different gender to the one they were assigned at birth, many based in London. But the trans community are subjected to huge levels of discrimination and disadvantage, such as when accessing health services.
“These two projects from Gendered Intelligence and Spectra put Trans Londoners at the heart of designing and campaigning for systems and services that work better for them. We are proud to fund them.”
The Trans Learning Partnership
The Trans Learning Partnership is led by Spectra and made up of community representatives, academics and charities. Together they carry out research to improve trans services. Below Spectra updates us on what it's been up to ahead of Trans Day of Visibility.
The Trans Learning Partnership is in the process of launching a range of original research activity, to coincide with Trans Day of Visibility. We are launching a survey, focused on understanding trans experiences of employment and related barriers, while also considering the interplay this may have with other factors such as housing, or access to transition-related medical care.
This survey also acts as a platform by which trans and non-binary people can express interest in potentially being interviewed on their experiences of housing, taking part in focus groups, or receiving training and becoming a community researcher. Our research is driven by a community participatory approach, which empowers trans communities to direct research priorities and interpret data at every step of the process.
With a 100% trans staff, and compensating participants for their time, we’re excited to make a difference for our communities through this exciting and transformative agenda. We are pursuing a similar programme of activity focused on understanding the needs of Trans People of Colour, and expect to have significant data sets gathered by the autumn.
The TLP will also soon be launching its first website, and continues a process of assisting our partner organisations in sharing data and improving how data is used to shape service delivery.
The survey will be launched on Friday 31 March. For updates on please see Spectra’s website or email tlp@spectra-london.org.uk.
Gendered Intelligence
Gendered Intelligence is a national trans-led charity. We fund the organisation to carry out to carry out community organising work, enabling trans Londoners facing multiple inequalities to call for meaningful change. Recently this has included recruiting a new Social Justice Officer role, who will work on developing policy and organising strategies to improve living standards for trans people.
Cara English, Head of Public Engagement at Gendered Intelligence, said:
“This is a project that is built to last and to have real impact - we're looking forward immensely to the full recruitment of community members. In a world where trans people are increasingly visible but positive action towards our material needs are still staunchly refused by decision makers, projects like these are needed more than ever.
"We know that the political climate means work with central government can be slow and painful if it happens at all, so it's our hope that these more grassroots, local campaigns mean trans Londoners can move from a place of hypervisibility to a place of ongoing resilience and stability."
Find out more on the website for Gendered Intelligence.