This year’s focus is on community building, support and celebration. The events planned so far range from a tattoo flash day, a dog hangout, a mini film festival, a big queer party and ending up at the beach for a picnics and chill.

Organisers Victoria Oldman and Zed Gregory first teamed up at the vigil for Brianna Ghey, a sixteen-year-old trans girl who was tragically murdered in February. Zed commented, “The media conversation about trans lives has become increasingly toxic. When a young person is murdered we have to understand there are real consequences to the hate being spewed by a very vocal minority. 

“This year has been really tough for our community, we are under constant attack and it’s all feeling a bit bleak. We want to provide some safe and supportive spaces for our community to just hang out together.”

Hastings Trans Pride 2023 has already gathered local support, “We live in such a great place,” says Zed, “everyone wants to help – honestly we are blown away by this town.”  

Events will run from 22 to 29 July in a series of events across Hastings, St Leonards and Bexhill. It will welcome all local, trans, non-binary and gender expansive folk and their allies. Venues include the Observer Building, Hastings Museum and Art Gallery, and the De La Warr Pavilion.

Zed is keen to get the message out, “Throughout July we will be asking shops and businesses to put our flags and stickers up in their windows, to show the trans community some love and prove that there is no hate in Hastings.” 

Victoria continues, “We need people to step up and actively show they are supportive, understanding that they can really make a difference to people’s lives – that they can help. We know the majority of the general public are behind the trans community. Trans Pride Hastings is here to make that support visible, to bring us together in solidarity, and to show local trans and non-binary people they are valid, they are loved and they have the right to feel safe.”

While there are no plans for a march in Hastings this year, there will be a community day-trip to the more established Brighton Trans Pride on 15 July. Funds will be raised to cover travel for anyone for whom cost would be a barrier to attending.

June is LGBT Pride Month. Whilst many associate Pride with Parades, which take place in various locations around the world throughout the summer, Pride Month is this month in order to mark the original Stonewall Riots. Early on the morning of Saturday, June 28, 1969, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people rioted following a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar at 43 Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City. This riot and the subsequent protests and rioting over the following nights proved to be the birth of the modern LGBT rights movement, sparking LGBT pride marches on a much larger public scale.

PICTURE: Eduardo pastor/Unsplash

In some ways it feels like a very strange time to be marking Pride Month. I have chosen the word ‘marking’ deliberately – ‘celebrating’ seems to be a strange fit at present, as during lockdown we all find ourselves separated from each other and unable to party together and share in the glory of freedom to love whom we like and live as we choose. Also, Pride feels like more of a Protest than ever. The Supreme Court of America has very recently handed down its Decision which ensures that the 1964 Civil Rights is now to be applied to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Whilst welcome of course, it must be remembered that as well as a ‘step forward’, this is as much a defensive act against the increasingly hostile Trump Administration. The past few years and indeed the past few weeks of the Black Lives Matter movement have surely taught us all that progress does not travel in a neat, straight line. The fight never ends, and never stops. 

Having said this, the internal ‘fight’ within the LGBTQIA community sometimes feels unbearable. Trans rights matter more than ever. The toxicity of online dialogue about this helps nobody and is undermining us all. Trans people desperately need support from us Allies. At the same time, a world in which straight male members of the gaming community use the expression ‘TERF’ (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist) literally as a four letter word in order to abuse women for holding opinions on completely unrelated matters, and the frightening rise of domestic violence in lockdown, should remind us that the struggle for Liberation encompasses women, LGBTQIA people, those who are physically disabled or neuro-diverse and our BAME community and we should stand together to fight for a fair world for us all. 

And in fact, we largely do. To quote Nancy Kelley, the recently-appointed chief executive of Stonewall, in her first interview with The Guardian – “It’s really important to not mistake the way [the trans] issue gets talked about in the media, particularly social media, as a reflection of British attitudes… the general public as a whole – and women in particular – are not anti-trans or really worried about trans inclusion. What you see instead is that the overwhelming majority of people [83%] don’t see themselves as transphobic and don’t agree with transphobia.”’ Kelley goes on to rightly emphasise the importance of focussing on building our shared empathy for all people to experience dignity and happiness in life, rather than avoiding the trap of needlessly tearing each other apart over what ‘womanhood’ should mean, to no positive end effect for anybody.  

We must stand together and treat each other with respect and care, so that we can resist division by vested interests in power and secure the protection of rights for those who need it. Events in America and across the wider world show that there is no time to do anything else. 

• Juliet Harris lives in St Leonards on Sea and is Thoughts and Voices Editor for Hastings Independent Press.

One of Chad Varah’s first duties when ordained in 1935 was to take the funeral of a 13 year old girl who had committed suicide. She didn’t know that bleeding between her legs was perfectly normal; her tragic death could so easily have been avoided. The lack of someone to speak to in confidence stayed with Varah, eventually leading to the establishment of the Samaritans in 1953. Varah answered the first call for the new service, describing it as requiring just “a man willing to listen, with a base and an emergency telephone”. 

The Hastings and Rother Samaritans’ base is a small terraced house in a quiet square in Hastings. Talking to Yvette Harris, the branch director, it became clear that the Samaritan volunteers all learn to deal with very difficult issues with a deep-seated honesty, emotional resilience and mental toughness. 

Yvette explains how difficult it can be when the caller is suicidal: “If they are not vulnerable and capable of making their own decisions then we will be with them to support them. If they wish us to be on the phone, if that’s what they wish to do, then that’s what we would do. But our hope is that they would put down the phone and for just one more day feel that they can hang on, maybe the next day they might feel a little bit stronger that things might change, they might talk to us again.”

It took a moment to realise that she was talking about staying on the phone while something potentially awful happens. But of course they don’t know where the caller is – they could be anywhere across the country; all local branches answer the national 116123 number which is free (and untraceable) for both mobiles and landlines and won’t appear as ‘Samaritans’ on caller lists or bills. 

No judgements, no advice

It can be hard not to give advice. Yvette explains: “Just because it’s worked for us it doesn’t mean it’s going to be right for the caller, and it could go drastically wrong. We never want to tell someone what we think they should do.” She makes a wider point that we could all do well to heed: “Next time you have a conversation with someone and you start telling them about yourself or what’s been happening, pay attention to who you think is really listening to you because you find quite often it gets completely turned around. Before you know it they’re telling you that exactly the same thing happened to them or they know about what you’re talking about they’ve experienced it and they’re talking about themselves, not you. It’s quite strange, and I don’t think you notice it until you’ve learned to listen.”

Nowadays they answer callers in many different ways – via phone, text (SMS), email or face to face. They have a festival branch that travels to festivals, and a correspondence branch as some people still prefer to write letters. In the future they have a plan to set up an instant messaging system, but estimate that that would require 6,500 more volunteers nationally. 

A huge level of need

Nationwide, through 201 branches, the Samaritans answer a call every 6 seconds; 550 every hour every day, with an average length of 21 minutes and half are first-time callers. At the Hastings branch last year 53 volunteers took 13 thousand calls, answered 2,400 emails, 2,715 texts and conducted 139 face to face meetings. As Yvette says, “For a very small branch, that is a lot, we do pack it in. We are working non-stop.”

The scale of their work, of the need, is huge. Yvette says: “There is no one type of caller; it’s just such a mixed bag.” Callers’ concerns in 2018 included isolation and loneliness, family problems, mental health issues, physical health or illness, relationship problems and self-harming. Suicidal feelings are present in one in four calls for help; in the early hours of the morning that rises to one in three. One in five of those self-harming say they were talking to the Samaritans to avoid self-harm. Men are more likely to mention isolation and loneliness. 50% of calls were from women, 36% from men, 1% transgender and 7% of unknown gender. 85% were adults, 4% children under 18, and 11% age unknown. 

Becoming a volunteer 

Everyone’s journey to becoming a Samaritans volunteer is different. For Yvette, early in her life she experienced a difficult, long illness. She didn’t use or even know about the Samaritans at the time, but was left thinking that she wanted to give something back.  Later, when she heard about the Samaritans, it felt like the perfect thing to do, the way to help others.  

The Samaritans set clear expectations about becoming a volunteer. Nationwide they recruited and trained 4,300 new volunteers last year and it’s currently a process that is open twice a year in Hastings, though there are plans that will make the process more flexible soon. 

Upfront a potential volunteer is told that they must commit to one duty a week, four hours at the moment, and one of those duties has to be a night duty every month. If interested, a volunteer sends in an application form (search ‘Samaritans application’), is invited to attend an information day; then there’s an interview and a selection day. The process explores the applicant’s life skills, how they perceive things in life; are they non-judgemental? Are they empathetic? Yvette says, “Some people have so much empathy it oozes out of them, some people don’t have as much, but it’s not to say they won’t, they gain it along the way.”

Then it’s on to basic training which takes about two and a half months, working through ten modules. Once that’s finished they are given a mentor for a number of sessions, for around 6 to 8 weeks. They then go into the duty room, always with a full Samaritan by their side, during which time they complete another four modules of Samaritans training. All being well they become a full Samaritan and are then able to support trainees themselves. In addition, at the end of every duty a volunteer can phone a “leader”, who support the people on duty, they discuss the call, and assess if the volunteer needs support themselves. There’s even a Samaritan’s Samaritan in the branch who everyone can talk to; at no point are the people on duty left unsupported.

What’s in it for volunteers? 

So why volunteer? Yvette explains: “Volunteers do gain a lot. We gain comfort in knowing that we have been able to be there for someone who may really have needed it. It’s like a family in here. It’s a wonderful organization. We really do all support each other and every single one of us who comes in really cares about what we do.”

• If you are interested in becoming a volunteer,
email Yvette on Hastings.Director@samaritans.org

There’s something going on in the world of gender politics. Radio listeners follow the experiences of ‘a boy born in the wrong body’ in the drama Just a girl; university lecturers are told how to talk about gender identity; members of the Labour party start taking sides about whether transgender women should appear on all women’s short lists.

Despite their impact on everyday life, many people appear to know little about
the issues involved. But they reaIly should because the government is currently consulting on reforms to the Gender Recognition Act 2004 to make it easier for trans people to achieve legal recognition. This includes being able to self-identify as a man or a woman.

According to groups in the transgender movement this would remove unnecessary bureaucratic procedures. But groups in the women’s movement, believe this would take away hard-won rights from women.

Important decisions should be preceded by informed debate but, despite the consultation, there appears to be an attempt to shut down debate and polarise the arguments. From media coverage, the dominant view appears to be that transgender women are actually women, just like born females. Dig deeper and there are concerns that those with different views have been unwilling to speak out, afraid of verbal abuse or even violence.

ACCESS WOMEN-ONLY SPACES
A useful introduction to the women’s argument can be found in a talk given by Dr Kathleen Stock, of the University of Brighton, at a meeting of Woman’s Place UK, in July (available on Youtube).

She has also written extensively (www.medium.com) about the dangers of self-identification, such as ‘unscrupulous men’ using the legislation to access women-only spaces. In these articles she also writes about the online abuse she had received, after writing and talking about the subject. But despite this, it was surprisingly easy to contact
her and arrange an interview
for HIP.

Within a week I was sitting opposite Kathleen, in a café in Lewes, asking what had prompted her, only recently, to engage with the issue. She explained she had been bothered for a couple of years by small top-down changes at the university, to accommodate transgender ideology and she began worrying about its impact on academic freedom. However, she says: “I was in denial, and was actually concerned about the adverse effect speaking out would have on my professional life. Now my aim is to engage other academics in the debate.”

BALANCED AND REASONED DEBATE
Possible changes to the Gender Recognition Act also gave a sense of urgency to speaking out. She insists that academics from a range of disciplines, should be involved in the discussion, to ensure a balanced and reasoned debate: for example within university legal and sociology departments.

I asked what was causing the polarisation of views and where the abuse was coming from. Kathleen makes a distinction between the transgender rights movement which, she feels, is dominating the agenda and politicising the argument, and transgender people in general – a diverse group with many different views. Kathleen acknowledges that transgender people have suffered a lot over the years and that their rights are an important part of creating an inclusive society. But, her concern is that a small section of the transgender community are trying to silence the debate on how transgender rights can be enhanced without impacting the rights of others.

• See www.gov.uk/government/consultations/reform-of-the-gender-recognition-act-2004  and Read the full interview with Dr Stock at here

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The following interview with Dr Kathleen Stock, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sussex, relates to the article of the same name appearing in the 21 September edition of Hastings Independent Press.

HIP: You say you have only just started blogging about the issue. What got you involved?

KS: There were a series of small things over several years that influenced me. I must admit that I’ve been frightened and in denial over this issue. Over the last few years, academia has been at the forefront of trans ideology: encouragement to announce pronoun use before lectures; mixed toilets on campus; workshops to encourage women into philosophy for ‘anyone who self-identifies as a woman’, and so on.

At the same time many websites have been using violent language, e.g. talking about TERFs and there’s been no questioning of views that don’t make sense. In lectures, some students have been telling me that I must ask each student about their pronouns before teaching begins. I don’t see this sort of shift as a cost-free change. I don’t accept that gender is something we ‘identify’ into. I see gender – understood as a set of stereotypes about what is ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ – as harmful.

Then there is the discussion of the Gender Recognition Act starting with the transgender enquiry in 2016. During that enquiry Maria Miller didn’t consult women’s groups, but was heavily influenced by trans activists, including NUS transgender representative Jess Bradley (who has since been suspended over claims of posting inappropriate pictures online) and Stonewall (who campaign for accepting transgender women as real women). They petitioned the committee to remove sex as a protected characteristic and apparently she agreed they should. This was followed by the Gender Recognition Act consultation.

There came a point where I felt I had to do something.

HIP: We hear a lot from women’s groups about abusive behaviour from the trans activists, but I hear there has been abusive behaviour on both sides of the debate. What do you think?

KS: I feel there is a limited amount of genuine transphobia within some pro-female groups and I reject it, of course. I believe trans women should be free to live and dress and call themselves what they please without any fear of violence threat or ridicule. I just don’t agree this should give trans women access to all the benefits and protections that have been created for females in a sexist society. I personally haven’t seen any violence or bullying that clearly comes from women’s groups – but I accept that there could be some. That’s just to be fair, as I believe most of the abuse is coming from trans activists.

HIP: How can we maintain clarity in the debate by differentiating between trans women (or men) and trans activists? It seems that the activists want to conflate the two.

KS: I believe trans people come from a diverse range of backgrounds as with any group. Many transwomen don’t think they are women. Trans activists, on the other hand, often aren’t trans. For them, it’s not about being trans, but an attitude to it and a political stance.

HIP: What do you feel about the way the trans issue is being portrayed in the drama Just a Girl on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour?

KS: I feel that radio dramas showing the issue in simplistic terms are unhelpful. Anything that suggests children are trans gender because they don’t fit stereotype gender norms is extremely harmful. None of us fit those stereotypes perfectly. The best plan is to get rid of the stereotypes, not change our bodies and behaviour to fit them.

HIP: Does the polarisation of views in the transgender debate reflect a deeper disorder in society or is it simply an inevitable outcome of obtained special rights for different groups?

KS: There is possibly a connection between the rise of faith-based movements and followers of other non-mainstream ideas such as creationists, homeopathists, antivaxxers, etc. This denigration of science and experts is an affirmation of the idea that you can believe what you feel and leads to an environment in which some people apparently live in an alternative reality.

HIP: Is there a need for a more active and responsible part to be played by academics?

KS: Yes.

HIP: It can be frustrating how poorly things are sometimes communicated and how the people who shout the loudest seem to have a natural advantage. Can this change?

KS: I’m worried that it might be difficult to change. Social media isn’t helping as it encourages people to skim issues superficially and express their views just through clicks – fed by a reduction in attention spans. There is also a danger that algorithms promote extreme views, feeding off strong emotions. All of this is encouraged by the social media platforms as clicks make money for them.

HIP: You’ve said in your writing that clarity at law would be a very good first step in moving things forward. How can this be done?

KS: The first place to start would be to work on harmonizing the Gender Recognition Act and the Equalities Act. Without that there will be legal loopholes – The Fair Play for Women site is very good on this issue.

HIP: I tried to read Gender Trouble by Judith Butler, which appears to be referenced by the Transgender movement, but couldn’t see how this adds to their case. Any thoughts?

KS: Overall, I feel that her argument that biological sex is a social construct is terrible. However, either way, nothing she says supports the argument for self-identification, so she is being used by transgender activists as an illegitimate source of argument.

HIP: Thank you very much for talking to us.

We hope you have enjoyed reading this article. The future of our volunteer led, non-profit publication would be far more secure with the aid of a small donation. It only takes a minute and we would be very grateful.