Two months have almost passed since I joined the Cohort 4 team as the Inclusion Support Worker. Within this time, I have been welcomed with open arms to all groups and, recently, I have found myself reflecting on what it truly means to hold a title of ‘inclusion’. Whilst the answers to this reflection may seem obvious, it can be very difficult to think of the world outside of ourselves and our individual experiences – to see the wider world through as many lenses as possible. As a young pansexual woman myself, it is especially important to me that we learn from as many perspectives as possible.
This week, I attended a training session held by Galop titled LGBT+ Experiences of Domestic Abuse. Galop is an incredible charity who support members of the LGBT+ community who have experienced violence of abuse (https://www.galop.org.uk/). When first signing on to do this training, I was confident that my levels of knowledge were already high and I was excited to see what I could learn from this. I quickly found that there is always more out there to learn and to know and the trainer, Lis (they/he), was fantastically welcoming and full of information.
One of the key things we talked about was what it means to live in our heteronormative society. I felt very privileged that I have never encountered judgement around my gender expression or identity and some of the questions raised by Lis really put into perspective how non-welcoming our world is to individuals living with gender identities outside of cisgender male or female. Some examples of these questions were around the importance and need to disclose pronouns or to have to ask for events and spaces to use terminology other than ladies and gentlemen. Whilst I’ve never felt represented or accurately labelled by the term ‘lady’, I have never experienced how harmful this truly can be. The presumptuous nature that we all carry was very evident during these moments of discussion and the harm that we can cause without thought was clear. The same could be said for sexuality, why is it so important for us to disclose – do heterosexual individuals have to proclaim their straightness? This was definitely food for thought.
After these conversations around LGBT+ identities, the topic was then moved on to the hardships and rising levels of abuse faced by this community. To hear the statistics and testimonials was heartbreaking and it did make me wonder, where is the coverage on these issues? Why are our LGBT+ friends facing such terrible times? Why is the community so ridiculed and hated? Why aren’t we doing anything about this? How devastating it is to learn that individuals in this community do not feel comfortable to even report or discuss their most serious incidents of hate crimes to the police. Our trans+ community, especially, are facing such awful times of public hate and discrimination. Where is our love for one another?
Such deep feelings were evoked by this training that I began to reflect on my role and what we offer at Cohort 4. Am I truly inclusive? Are any of us truly inclusive? I’d like to think that I am. This thought has filled me with such passion, if all of these questions truly have no answers or hold no positive revelations, then it is up to us to create them. It is up to us to be the voices of those who do not feel that they can report, that do not feel that their experiences matter, that do not feel that they can ever be their true selves. My love for those in the LGBT+ community is overflowing and I would implore those that feel that they do not have enough or do not receive any, please, take some of mine. I would love to hear more of your voices, thoughts and opinions, especially on how we could support you at Cohort 4. I may be new, but I will ensure that your voices are heard – alex@cohort4.org.uk
This blogpost is dedicated to my trans+ sisters and brothers and siblings; my non-heterosexual friends; my ace and/or aromantic community; to all of my LGBT+ community.
You definitely do belong. You definitely do matter. You are definitely more than loved.
Alex (she/her)
