[Music]
I’m going to talk about tea with trans
what’s on and what’s definitely off the
menu but we’re going to start with
something much easier it’s quite nice
today isn’t it it’s pretty autumnal it’s
that in-between time of year don’t you
think it’s like oh is it the raincoat is
it the big coat is it just a light
raincoat and I see last week it was
really unusually warm and temperate
wasn’t it you know this is England we
kind of go oh my god it’s late summer
what’s happened it’s all it’s all wrong
but it’s something to talk about isn’t
it it’s what we do it’s what Carol does
for us in the mornings we hear it on the
radio we talk about the weather and when
we meet people when we meet new people
we meet new people we don’t know it’s
that all goodness that was mentioned
earlier this morning by one of the
speakers that sort of sense of kind of
like all the British who can’t really
speak to people it’s a bit tricky what
are we saying talk about the weather so
that’s the solution for that but it’s
worse than lift don’t you think that’s
that rule in lifts where if I just do
even for a moment in the talk it’s
uncomfortable oh my god what’s happening
it just reminded me really of an
incident a little while ago in a lift in
Manchester of all places um and I was
staying overnight I was you know ready
in the morning dressed like this with my
little wheelie suitcase along I came to
the lifts and I went and there was a guy
in the left already
okay fine I get in turn around he says
nothing it looks like is the kind of
probably a construction worker you know
hardhat there ready tall belt nicely
power tooled up you know
we’ve got a police officer in the room
I’m sort of thinking yeah there is one
or two objects here which might be
dangerous weapon so don’t know but he
probably works on a building site so
that’s fine it’s all contextual it’s
okay we can go with that so the doors
shut we say nothing turn around but it’s
like these doors mirrored doors
oh no we’re looking at each other oh
dear silence it’s not gonna work here
okay and if anyone maybe it’s me who
should be feeling slightly uncomfortable
but I get the sense that it’s not it’s
this guy I can feel him kind of going
and there’s a pause he can feel a nice
thing I know okay so I’ve got to make it
easier for you so as we’re going down I
say oh is it still raining outside you
think and then there’s this sort of
stretched out moment like you know when
you have an accident when he sort of
it’s a microsecond but it feels like
it’s going on forever and there was this
moment where I felt his reaction she
speaks the trans woman can speak and is
human so and I felt that in that moment
and he just went when’s it not raining
in Manchester love no that’s a fair
point
you know the lift goes open we arrive
ground floor and we escape into the fire
of freedom and we say have a good day
bye thanks very much and we sort of off
we go with friends and that moment got
me thinking about trans people and
familiarity with us and how people feel
uncomfortable or comfortable or not all
sorts of variable degrees in between who
are we what are we doing
so in my life there was a time when I
was in the room and it was assumed that
there were no trans people in the room
there’s no one trans in here is there
and so I have a sense you know although
I can’t tell what’s going on in the mind
of the person I’ve never met in a lift
in Manchester who’s a construction
worker you know I don’t know I’m
thinking I wonder what he’s thinking he
I don’t know I don’t know what he’s
thinking we can’t do that so I don’t
know what people are thinking about
trans people but I do know what people
said about trans people
before I transitioned and you know there
was some kind people there are and there
were some less kind people so there we
are they might not have known but I knew
what they really thought so there were
you know a little bit of an English
understatement here some of it was less
than kind and some of it was less than
enlightened shall we say there we are so
that got me thinking post-transition at
work I work at Bishop gross test
University in a school of teacher
development and in the Equality and
select committee investigation into
trans equality a couple of years ago one
of the key findings of that group was
that for trans equality to happen there
had to be a great deal of work in
education and so I thought well I can do
a bit about and along with my colleagues
Zoe Knight and dr. Jenny Wynn at Bishop
gross test University we set about doing
something about that we created a thing
which we call diversity week as part of
our secondary teacher training program
and an element of that is about
educating our trainees about trans
people we carried out that work a couple
of years ago and my very clever
colleague Zoe who does maths did the
brilliant work that was necessary for
the quantitative and qualitative data
research and we found out some some few
things
but after a specific input from gendered
intelligence an organization that works
to help people understand more about
gender identity we found out a few
things we found that we could increase
the confidence of our trainees that
there probably were trans people’s in
their placement schools even if they
couldn’t see them even if those people
hadn’t disclosed themselves they’re
probably there we found that a bit of
Education also increased our trainees
confidence in discussing trans issues
with the pupils and additionally we
increased their confidence in teaching
trans pupils as well
but education doesn’t begin and end at
the school gates and this is just the
beginning so that’s what we have to do
we’ve just heard stone walls report
school report the first actual report
that includes information about
responses from trans pupils for
secondary and one of their findings is
certainly caused to sit down and have a
cup of tea of this research they’ve
discovered that two fifths of trans
pupils have attempted to kill themselves
so no thought about it not had a dark
day but have actually tried to do it so
that’s 45-ish percent it’s a very high
number and it wants something doing
about it so I’m doing a little bit with
the teacher trainees but that’s not
enough
it’s got to be broader people in general
need to understand more so here’s what I
invented this is where tea with trans
comes in so this is what it is because
it’s not you can’t assume that people
necessarily have met a trans person and
what they might say or how you might
have conversation together so I invented
a menu and here it is so up there it
says you know hello my name is Lindsay
my pronouns are she her and any
individual trans person can fill that in
and it can be used to start a
conversation
what prompted me to create this and to
do one or two events associated with it
was actually you can probably just see
it on the bottom the slide there
the atom world choir I’ll explain a
little bit more about that in a moment
but we are a group of trans and
non-binary people from around the world
and you know proportion of us they’re
obviously in the UK what’s on the inside
of the menu
mind you were chatting about and an
individual can put what they enjoy
chatting about we all enjoy chatting
about different things I can imagine
people might say films books going out
clothes shopping sport DIY holidays and
I guess from that list I probably said
something that most people in here might
enjoy having a chat about and that
significant of course because actually a
lot of the big narratives about trans
people are in the media and they start
at the other end of menu they start
really with stuff that for most people
would be off the menu so if I was to say
to you you know if I look at you and say
how are your genitals today it’s a
little curious isn’t it as a starter
that’s the sort of thing you know
should we just have the cup of tea first
and then move on see if that’s the
relationship we’re going to have or I
think that’s something I discussed with
my doctor if I want see if there’s a
problem if there’s an issue but it’s not
something you need to worry about but it
is and you can quickly google it it is
one of the things that trans people are
asked about as often the first question
so that’s why on that menu it just
actually say off the menu please don’t
ask me about and then an individual can
decide what they want to put on there so
when I did this I just put please don’t
ask me about my body and then it’s clear
feel free to ask me about is this stuff
which people might be curious about you
know people are interested people want
to know more they it’s like oh you’re
interesting what’s what’s happened in
your life I had you know so the sorts of
things that when I did it I put on there
were things like my family my work my
childhood I put on there but people can
put different things so there’s a queue
there to start conversation so there we
are
self aggrandizement see with trans and
the tricky thing about this is you’re
probably wondering so how did it work
who was there who came what happened
and there were issues there around
visibility and invisibility because as
you you know from what I’ve just said I
spent part of my life being completely
invisible to most of my friends and
colleagues so in speaking about T with
trans I’ve got to think of a different
way of doing this here’s some response
that we had to our first event which we
held in Glasgow a year ago as part of
the Adam world choir event
interesting but that still doesn’t give
you a flavor of it not quite it says it
was a positive experience and it was it
was great but lots of the people there
were not like me they weren’t living as
themselves authentically and not able to
have any photographs or any evidence
that the event took place at all their
worries were really would they be
physically safe and also would they be
psychologically safe so the menu was
part of that strategy to make sure that
that was okay it was part of this which
is going to be my way of trying to give
you an indication of the kind of
identities and diversity of trans
identities that we had in the room
because connected with this production
of Adam by the National Theatre Scotland
they created a global digital choir of
trans and non-binary people and I’m part
of that choir so Adam is the story and
the real story of Adam Kashmiri who is
the trans man originally from Egypt
whose journey took him to Glasgow where
he was able to make a physical
transition
and in the play it tells the real story
of how Adam in Egypt with his life at
threat because of his identity he’d
turned to the Internet as you can see
there and asked this question can the
soul of a man be trapped in the body of
a woman and the responses came from the
trans community across the globe and
there’s an image of some of the people
in the choir some of the people who
responded some of the people who gave
suggestions hope and assurance and
pointed adam to resources that they
could use to assist them and support
them in their journey and will finish on
this with the actual choir which comes
in right at the end of the production
and I’m showing this really as I hope an
expression and illustration of the
diversity of voices amongst the trans
community so whilst you’re experiencing
me talking as a trans woman obviously
I’m you know a middle-aged person white
and so on and so on and middle class
blah blah blah all the rest of it
there’s a lot more diversity than that
because gender identity like many other
identities of course crosses across all
other things all walks of life all
geographies all cultures and on that
note let’s hear from the choir
you
[Music]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
before
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Applause]
I’m going to talk about tea with trans
what’s on and what’s definitely off the
menu but we’re going to start with
something much easier it’s quite nice
today isn’t it it’s pretty autumnal it’s
that in-between time of year don’t you
think it’s like oh is it the raincoat is
it the big coat is it just a light
raincoat and I see last week it was
really unusually warm and temperate
wasn’t it you know this is England we
kind of go oh my god it’s late summer
what’s happened it’s all it’s all wrong
but it’s something to talk about isn’t
it it’s what we do it’s what Carol does
for us in the mornings we hear it on the
radio we talk about the weather and when
we meet people when we meet new people
we meet new people we don’t know it’s
that all goodness that was mentioned
earlier this morning by one of the
speakers that sort of sense of kind of
like all the British who can’t really
speak to people it’s a bit tricky what
are we saying talk about the weather so
that’s the solution for that but it’s
worse than lift don’t you think that’s
that rule in lifts where if I just do
even for a moment in the talk it’s
uncomfortable oh my god what’s happening
it just reminded me really of an
incident a little while ago in a lift in
Manchester of all places um and I was
staying overnight I was you know ready
in the morning dressed like this with my
little wheelie suitcase along I came to
the lifts and I went and there was a guy
in the left already
okay fine I get in turn around he says
nothing it looks like is the kind of
probably a construction worker you know
hardhat there ready tall belt nicely
power tooled up you know
we’ve got a police officer in the room
I’m sort of thinking yeah there is one
or two objects here which might be
dangerous weapon so don’t know but he
probably works on a building site so
that’s fine it’s all contextual it’s
okay we can go with that so the doors
shut we say nothing turn around but it’s
like these doors mirrored doors
oh no we’re looking at each other oh
dear silence it’s not gonna work here
okay and if anyone maybe it’s me who
should be feeling slightly uncomfortable
but I get the sense that it’s not it’s
this guy I can feel him kind of going
and there’s a pause he can feel a nice
thing I know okay so I’ve got to make it
easier for you so as we’re going down I
say oh is it still raining outside you
think and then there’s this sort of
stretched out moment like you know when
you have an accident when he sort of
it’s a microsecond but it feels like
it’s going on forever and there was this
moment where I felt his reaction she
speaks the trans woman can speak and is
human so and I felt that in that moment
and he just went when’s it not raining
in Manchester love no that’s a fair
point
you know the lift goes open we arrive
ground floor and we escape into the fire
of freedom and we say have a good day
bye thanks very much and we sort of off
we go with friends and that moment got
me thinking about trans people and
familiarity with us and how people feel
uncomfortable or comfortable or not all
sorts of variable degrees in between who
are we what are we doing
so in my life there was a time when I
was in the room and it was assumed that
there were no trans people in the room
there’s no one trans in here is there
and so I have a sense you know although
I can’t tell what’s going on in the mind
of the person I’ve never met in a lift
in Manchester who’s a construction
worker you know I don’t know I’m
thinking I wonder what he’s thinking he
I don’t know I don’t know what he’s
thinking we can’t do that so I don’t
know what people are thinking about
trans people but I do know what people
said about trans people
before I transitioned and you know there
was some kind people there are and there
were some less kind people so there we
are they might not have known but I knew
what they really thought so there were
you know a little bit of an English
understatement here some of it was less
than kind and some of it was less than
enlightened shall we say there we are so
that got me thinking post-transition at
work I work at Bishop gross test
University in a school of teacher
development and in the Equality and
select committee investigation into
trans equality a couple of years ago one
of the key findings of that group was
that for trans equality to happen there
had to be a great deal of work in
education and so I thought well I can do
a bit about and along with my colleagues
Zoe Knight and dr. Jenny Wynn at Bishop
gross test University we set about doing
something about that we created a thing
which we call diversity week as part of
our secondary teacher training program
and an element of that is about
educating our trainees about trans
people we carried out that work a couple
of years ago and my very clever
colleague Zoe who does maths did the
brilliant work that was necessary for
the quantitative and qualitative data
research and we found out some some few
things
but after a specific input from gendered
intelligence an organization that works
to help people understand more about
gender identity we found out a few
things we found that we could increase
the confidence of our trainees that
there probably were trans people’s in
their placement schools even if they
couldn’t see them even if those people
hadn’t disclosed themselves they’re
probably there we found that a bit of
Education also increased our trainees
confidence in discussing trans issues
with the pupils and additionally we
increased their confidence in teaching
trans pupils as well
but education doesn’t begin and end at
the school gates and this is just the
beginning so that’s what we have to do
we’ve just heard stone walls report
school report the first actual report
that includes information about
responses from trans pupils for
secondary and one of their findings is
certainly caused to sit down and have a
cup of tea of this research they’ve
discovered that two fifths of trans
pupils have attempted to kill themselves
so no thought about it not had a dark
day but have actually tried to do it so
that’s 45-ish percent it’s a very high
number and it wants something doing
about it so I’m doing a little bit with
the teacher trainees but that’s not
enough
it’s got to be broader people in general
need to understand more so here’s what I
invented this is where tea with trans
comes in so this is what it is because
it’s not you can’t assume that people
necessarily have met a trans person and
what they might say or how you might
have conversation together so I invented
a menu and here it is so up there it
says you know hello my name is Lindsay
my pronouns are she her and any
individual trans person can fill that in
and it can be used to start a
conversation
what prompted me to create this and to
do one or two events associated with it
was actually you can probably just see
it on the bottom the slide there
the atom world choir I’ll explain a
little bit more about that in a moment
but we are a group of trans and
non-binary people from around the world
and you know proportion of us they’re
obviously in the UK what’s on the inside
of the menu
mind you were chatting about and an
individual can put what they enjoy
chatting about we all enjoy chatting
about different things I can imagine
people might say films books going out
clothes shopping sport DIY holidays and
I guess from that list I probably said
something that most people in here might
enjoy having a chat about and that
significant of course because actually a
lot of the big narratives about trans
people are in the media and they start
at the other end of menu they start
really with stuff that for most people
would be off the menu so if I was to say
to you you know if I look at you and say
how are your genitals today it’s a
little curious isn’t it as a starter
that’s the sort of thing you know
should we just have the cup of tea first
and then move on see if that’s the
relationship we’re going to have or I
think that’s something I discussed with
my doctor if I want see if there’s a
problem if there’s an issue but it’s not
something you need to worry about but it
is and you can quickly google it it is
one of the things that trans people are
asked about as often the first question
so that’s why on that menu it just
actually say off the menu please don’t
ask me about and then an individual can
decide what they want to put on there so
when I did this I just put please don’t
ask me about my body and then it’s clear
feel free to ask me about is this stuff
which people might be curious about you
know people are interested people want
to know more they it’s like oh you’re
interesting what’s what’s happened in
your life I had you know so the sorts of
things that when I did it I put on there
were things like my family my work my
childhood I put on there but people can
put different things so there’s a queue
there to start conversation so there we
are
self aggrandizement see with trans and
the tricky thing about this is you’re
probably wondering so how did it work
who was there who came what happened
and there were issues there around
visibility and invisibility because as
you you know from what I’ve just said I
spent part of my life being completely
invisible to most of my friends and
colleagues so in speaking about T with
trans I’ve got to think of a different
way of doing this here’s some response
that we had to our first event which we
held in Glasgow a year ago as part of
the Adam world choir event
interesting but that still doesn’t give
you a flavor of it not quite it says it
was a positive experience and it was it
was great but lots of the people there
were not like me they weren’t living as
themselves authentically and not able to
have any photographs or any evidence
that the event took place at all their
worries were really would they be
physically safe and also would they be
psychologically safe so the menu was
part of that strategy to make sure that
that was okay it was part of this which
is going to be my way of trying to give
you an indication of the kind of
identities and diversity of trans
identities that we had in the room
because connected with this production
of Adam by the National Theatre Scotland
they created a global digital choir of
trans and non-binary people and I’m part
of that choir so Adam is the story and
the real story of Adam Kashmiri who is
the trans man originally from Egypt
whose journey took him to Glasgow where
he was able to make a physical
transition
and in the play it tells the real story
of how Adam in Egypt with his life at
threat because of his identity he’d
turned to the Internet as you can see
there and asked this question can the
soul of a man be trapped in the body of
a woman and the responses came from the
trans community across the globe and
there’s an image of some of the people
in the choir some of the people who
responded some of the people who gave
suggestions hope and assurance and
pointed adam to resources that they
could use to assist them and support
them in their journey and will finish on
this with the actual choir which comes
in right at the end of the production
and I’m showing this really as I hope an
expression and illustration of the
diversity of voices amongst the trans
community so whilst you’re experiencing
me talking as a trans woman obviously
I’m you know a middle-aged person white
and so on and so on and middle class
blah blah blah all the rest of it
there’s a lot more diversity than that
because gender identity like many other
identities of course crosses across all
other things all walks of life all
geographies all cultures and on that
note let’s hear from the choir
you
[Music]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
before
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Applause]
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