What do you need to feel like your true self? In this section we hear from young trans and non-binary people who want to create positive change and support other young people to have a better experience than theirs. Here we can read the experiences of the young people who took part in our Trans Youth Commission. We can see calendar pages crossing off days waiting for an appointment with a gender specialist. There are stories of hope, joy, love and struggles. There are some young people still unable to share their true selves- instead there are a series of self-portraits in which young people created the versions of themselves they could be if they didn’t need to feel scared.
Trans Youth Commission 2023 Round Up
Graphic Facilitation created by Jules Scheele to record the progress of the Trans Youth Commission who worked on the Gender Recognition Reform in 2022/2023. This artwork was created before the intervention of Westminster in 2023.
The Joy of Figuring it Out
Elliot, 23, Perth
An interview with a young trans man in Perth, December 2023.
Topics: helping others, meeting other trans people, alternative living, arts, community, role models, queerness and strength
Being Queer Is The Best Thing That’s Ever Happened To Me
Jasper, 18, Perth
Topics: friendship and joy, community, uniqueness, hopes and dreams, pride.
Potato Portraits
Dundee, September 2023
In September a group of young people from Dundee decided they wanted to share their stories and contribute something to the archives, however it was important to them to be able to stay completely anonymous. A young person suggested they make a self portrait using potatoes and the results were surprisingly poignant. The potatoes may be long gone, but their memory lives on!
Legion
What will your potato be called?
Legion (he/him)
How does your potato represent you?
He is eternally confused about identity and personality, is shy and non- speaking
What is your potato’s personality?
He is shy/ non-speaking
What are your hopes/ dreams for your potato?
I want him to find himself and be able to learn to talk to people again.
In 100 years what would you want people to know about your potato?
He’s an accurate representation of how society can shun and silence young LGBTQ+ people, and make it hard for them to know who they are.
Arlo
What will your potato be called?
Arlo (they/them)
How does your potato represent you?
I gave my potato short hair because I really want to cut my hair short and dye it red.
What is you favourite thing about your potato?
That it represents me how I want to be in the future because it is care free.
What is your potato’s personality?
A lot more confident in themselves.
What are your hopes/ dreams for your potato?
For it to have some little tater tots. And not to care about what people say about them.
Sarah
What will your potato be called?
Sarah (she/her)
How does your potato represent you?
She has a killer mullet which is iconic and she is super hench. She also has a mushrooms on her top because we love mushrooms here in this group.
What is you favourite thing about your potato?
That she is unique and even though her hair is messy she is still beautiful.
What is your potato’s personality?
She is confident and very happy within herself and unapologetically herself. But also kind of scary looking.
What are your hopes/ dreams for your potato?
Hopefully she doesn’t rot too soon. I just hope she is happy.
In 100 years what would you want people to know about your potato?
That a lot of effort was put into her.
Potatobelle & Pal
What will your potato be called?
Potatobelle (She/Her)
How does your potato represent you?
She is holding a coffee cup and has a manic look in her eye. She’s filled with carbs and a bit knobbly.
What is you favourite thing about your potato?
I really love the halo and the fact she’s holding a sloth, because I love sloths.
What are your hopes/ dreams for your potato?
I want her to continue to be unapologetically herself even when people think she’s weird.
In 100 years what would you want people to know about your potato?
I want people to know the effort and creativity that went into Potatobelle. I really feel we all worked together to make our potatoes.
Ayshah
What will your potato be called?
Ayshah (she/her, he/him)
How does your potato represent you?
Its pink! I like pink. It looks a bit like a spider and I don’t like spiders but I like the idea of spiders, I don’t like them when they are near me.
What is you favourite thing about your potato?
Just pink! I really like pink.
What is your potato’s personality?
Annoying, just a little bit annoying.
What are your hopes/ dreams for your potato?
Don’t die ideally.
Kenneth the Unicorn
Kenneth has all the pronouns. Kenneth lives with our Dundee group who won him in a contest but is a favourite across all our groups. Kenneth goes on lots of adventures, including attending Pride marches across the country.
“I first met Kenneth at Perthshire Pride, but he has played a big role in lots of different prides. He had an especially important job at Edinburgh Pride one year when he led the march.”
Kenneth picks up new badges and pronouns at every event, and one year the group campaigned to get Kenneth a pair of pants
51 Months and Counting
Triangle Youth Group Member, Age 24
“The trans healthcare system is broken. It has been 51 months, or 1,529 days, since I put myself on the waiting list to be seen by a gender specialist. Not the list for receiving medicine, or receiving surgeries, just the list to even see the first doctor. For many, that waiting time is too much. The system has failed us. The aim of this piece is to show the viewer just how long I have waited, and to show just how much the system fails to address the needs of all transgender people. It shows just how much time and patience goes into a transgender persons journey. 51 weeks is not the end of the journey. The waiting list has stalled. It has remained in the same place for nearly two years.”
This is a photograph of pages from a young person’s calendar, marking the amount of time that has passed since they put themselves on the waitlist to see a gender specialist. Each cross marks another day that has passed without medical care. Amongst the days crossed off on the calender are moments of everyday life. A birthday, a special occasion. Kayleigh is pictured below with her art.
Wanted
Ro, Scottish Queer International Film Festival, 26.9.2023
Trans is OK
Poster from the LGBT Youth Scotland Glasgow Youth Space
Clothes Don’t Define Gender
Poster from the LGBT Youth Scotland Glasgow Youth Space
Young Person’s Story
Involved Youth Group, Selkirk, EM, 5th July 2023, 5th July 2023
LGBT History Month: QOTA
In February 2020, we teamed up a group of young trans activists (now known as QOTA) with the geniuses at Capital Theatres to devise a powerful piece of performance art for a Scottish Parliament Reception we hosted to mark LGBT History Month.
This is a new digital revisiting of the live performance that stunned our guests that night. Heartfelt thanks to Capital Theatres and the QOTA team for their work on this.
Braver
Edinburgh Pride 2023.
Remember the Feeling
Quote from Highland Pride 2023.
Illustrations by Seán Casey, design by Chris Newton.
Faith
Maegen, Edinburgh Pride 2023
Illustrations by Seán Casey, design by Chris Newton.
Moments of Joy
Anonymous
Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
Jo, 27 She/Her, Mardi-Gla.
Illustrations by Seán Casey, design by Chris Newton.
Actions Speak Louder Than Words (Sad Trans Snow)
Beyond Gender Youth Group
Edinburgh, May 2024
‘Actions Speak Louder Than Words/ Sad Trans Snow’ was an art project created by LGBT Youth Scotland’s Beyond Gender youth group in response to the Cass report on NHS gender identity services of children and young people and the subsequent announcement that the Sandyford Children and Young Person’s Service would be pausing hormone treatments for under 18s. They wrote up four headings to gather their thoughts and feelings under: “I feel”, “I want this to happen”, “I’m worried about”, and “I hope for the future”. You can see the responses below:
I feel:
The government have proven to us that they can’t be trusted.
5 years on a waitlist shouldn’t be happening.
I feel scared for the futures of trans people.
I feel like I’ve lost most of my childhood/teenage years because I never felt like myself.
Don’t be surprised when children kill themselves and you’ve only yourselves to blame.
“Is is so wrong to want to live happy? Is it so wrong to want to live?”
The government has proven their lack of care. The point of a government is to care.
I feel utterly defeated. I was supposed to start hormones at the end of April/start of May. Now I have to wait even longer despite waiting almost my whole life.
Worried this will be extended further… Angry it doesn’t apply to cis people starting puberty early… So not that dangerous then.
More now than ever than Scotland needs independence from the UK.
I’m worried about :
The age of being able to access hormones to get upped. Or even completely banned altogether.
About the slippery slope steepening and the powers that be pushing more and more until they succeed in snuffing queer people out. Again.
The lives of trans people and how they deal with the situation.
I’m worried about my future and how things (rules) may change for the worse. I’m scared for my future self.
Trans people I care about giving up & becoming another statistic.
My bodily autonomy being infringed on further. It starts here. Except it doesn’t – it starts with propaganda and fear mongering. Here is where it gets worse. Where does it end? How much more will be taken from us. How many decisions ripped from our hands? What happens next?
This being extended up to 25 if the Cass study continues to go unchallenged.
I want this to happen:
HOW are trans people supposed to cope? What are trans people expected to do? How are trans people supposed to feel? Trans people should be supported better.
I want to be able to live my life without feeling hated by others & unsafe while in public.
I want to be able to walk around and not fear for my safety.
Ignorance has no place in medicine. Bigotry, political agendas, and propaganda aimed at supporting patriarchal structures cannot co-exist in inclusive healthcare.
If this is not reversed, GPs pick up the slack with bridging prescriptions.
The decision must be reversed. It’s a step back not only for trans rights but for the rights of all. If the government has the power to infringe on medical care that is APPROVED BY EXPERTS for the sake of agenda what else will they do? We have to stop it here.
I hope for the future:
I hope all trans kids & adults are taken seriously.
That everyone has access to the healthcare they need without having to live most of our lives suffering.
The people in this situation are consulted first before these studies are taken place so that it is properly researched.
That the repetitive pattern of divide and conquer cannot be used, that the collective rage, grief, compassion, and hope of discriminated and marginalised groups swells above the cowardice hate.
GPs will pick up the slack with bridging prescriptions
The young people then tore up the paper and released their fears. Talking it through and making this art helped the young people to process their frustrations and relieve some stress. They described this as looking like Sad Trans Snow.
![Sad Trans Snow [] Actions Speak Louder Than Words](https://lgbtyouth.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/sad-trans-snow-actions-speak-louder-than-words.jpg)
When asked what they wanted to do with the paper afterwards, the young people considered taking it home to burn, but in the end they asked if it could be recycled so that something positive could come from it.
After this, the young people were invited to make zines and art sharing how they felt about the announcements, or to send messages out to other young people affected. Z’s zine incorporated some of the torn shreds from the earlier project. There was grief, and fear, but also expressions of hope and pride. There were some difficult conversations that night, but the young people were keen to submit these pieces to show other young people who may have been affected that they are not alone. Here are the final results:
Share your story
This exhibition is an organic thing – an accessible archive space where you can tell or show us what life is like for you. You are so welcome here and we’d love you to feel a part of what we are doing.
What do you need to feel like your true self? If you want to add your experiences of exploring or sharing your gender identity
to our archive, please use our submission portal here
Our Partners
National Lottery Heritage Fund
National Library of Scotland
