About Us
Who are we and why are we here?
The Gender Positive Alliance is a group of people from diverse gender identities, including people who identify as transgender, transfemme and transmasc, genderfluid, genderqueer, non-binary and cisgender allies.
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Our team includes people aged 13 to 45, united by a passion to help transgender and genderqueer people of all ages to identify the places in Doncaster that will treat them kindly when they try to access support.
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We have all experienced or witnessed transphobia, or known it happen to the people we love.
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Some of us have been bullied in school due to our gender identities, others are professionals supporting children who have been suicidal due to transphobic abuse. Most of our team have experienced some of the worst things that our community encounter, but we all know that there are more kind people out there than there are hateful ones.
Our Story
We won't put targets on our team members by sharing their photos,
but we will share their stories here:
D's Story
Why I care:
My experience with my gender identity in school was horrible and made my mental health life threatening. Eventually, I found my place and happiness in my identity in being GenderQueer and Pansexual.
I love to help and understand others, and hope to open people up to learning more about themselves.
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What I think needs to change:
I want everyone to live as their true selves, understanding and full of love. And I believe young people need guidance on self understanding, and help to appreciate themselves as they are.
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AM's Story
Why I care:
I am cis-gender (happy with the male gender I was born with) and feel the utmost empathy for those who are not. To be trapped inside a body you cannot assimilate with, I have witnessed first hand, can be traumatic, leading to bodily mutilation, risk taking behaviour, withdrawal and despair.
The relationships I have had and continue to have with transgender people have been nothing short of inspiring. Their courage to be themselves in a society that is constantly rejecting them is indeed humbling.
What I think needs to change:
By supporting our children to become who they are, not who we want them to be, and by allowing them to explore themselves in a safe and nurturing environment can only lead to a deeper understanding and acceptance for us all.
Intolerance driven by lack of knowledge is prevalent throughout our society and that only leads to our children feeling rejected and unwanted in the very space they need to be made welcome in.
We all need to change our attitudes to the very real rights we have over our own bodies and give our youth the credit of knowing best on this very personal issue, and give them the tools to manage. Until then we need to keep them all safe and provide places of safety and support wherever we can.
Jenny Swift was a 49 year old transgender women who completed suicide in December 2017 in HMP Doncaster, an all male prison. Her requests for transfer were ignored and she suffered abuse from both staff and the male inmates. She was the third transgender women to die by suicide that year after being placed in a male prison.
She was someone's child.
C's Story
Why I care:
I am a trans woman.
I grew up without visible trans role models and without the language to make sense of how I felt. It's not until well into adulthood that I have been able understand and accept that I'm trans and move on with my transition.
I am where I am thanks to supportive trans friends and the wider queer community. Mutual support is vitality important for trans people of all ages.
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What I think needs to change:
Although trans people are much more visible now and information about trans issues is much easier to access than in previous decades, our increased visibility has also meant an increase in overt hostility towards us. We need allies and organisations who are not afraid to stand up for us publicly.
A's Story - in progress
Why I care:
your story here
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What I think needs to change:
your ideas here
T's Story - in progress
Why I care:
your story here
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What I think needs to change:
your ideas here
SL's Story - in progress
Why I care:
I'm a cisgender man who has a couple of family members and friends who are transgender, and have seen the difficulties they have with being accepted and understood for the people they are.
It is heart-breaking to see them struggle to be accepted and feel safe in the world that at times can feel very cruel and harsh on them.
I work in children's mental health and feel that it's important that we offer a understanding and acceptance of people's gender identity. Giving them a safe space to explore things and feel listened to at a time of their life when they may not have that at home.
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What I think needs to change:
I feel that there needs to be more training and work done to have professionals be more understanding around gender.
We need more understanding in schools, and by the NHS around gender and the needs of the person.
Also more safe spaces offered for people to go if they are feeling unsafe and harassed.
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S's Story - in progress
Why I care:
I am a transgender girl.
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I was very young when I first realized I was a girl - it just took me a while to accept it. I feel so much happier and so much more myself after transitioning, but after years of moving forwards in my gender identity, it feels like things are getting progressively worse for trans people in this country.
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I was really badly bullied at school even before I came out, but especially in the two years I've been out as myself - Kids would misgender me and call me slurs, demand I tell them about my legal name and about my genitals, try to hurt me and break into my bathroom stall to see me using the bathroom, and tell me to kill myself. And my school did nothing about this, convinced it would go away if they ignored it. I wasn't allowed to use the bathrooms or changing rooms for fear that I would 'assault someone', and in their negligence let me get sexually assaulted by forcing me to change with a kid whom they knew was harmful towards me. Sometimes the teachers would outright ignore the fact that I was sat next to people who would tell me to kill myself, or say that they would rape me, and I would be shaking and crying with fear. This all made me suicidal, and I began self-harming and wanting to end my life.
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My parents took me out of that school but I still experience the trauma from those times. I've had help from counselling and CAMHS, but I have ongoing trauma, anxiety and mental health issues as a result.
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What I think needs to change:
The school system and the government are failing trans children, and that needs to change.
Schools especially need to take kids seriously when they say they are transgender, and when they say what bullying is happening. The amount of stigma and media that frames trans people as dangerous, or threats to cis women are the main reasons that people feel as if being demeaning to trans people is ok - and it is currently being used (among other things) to justify the social and medical discrimination against transgender people that is incredibly prevalent as of now.
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The government has to re-introduce legal access to puberty blockers, and create a better system of medical and mental health support for trans people which can meet demand and mean that we can get convenient and safe access to the medication we need and want. The idea that my body can be allowed to betray me by becoming more masculine when I am a girl and live as a girl is horrifying to me, but the government thinks I don't know my own mind and body because I am a transgender child.
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I know who I am, and I hope the GPA can help others who do too.
H's Story
Why I care:
I am a cisgender woman, and my daughter is transgender. She is an amazing person, kind, loving and bright, but was bullied every day at school by kids telling her to kill herself, calling her "it", asking about her genitals and trying to touch her inappropriately, causing her to become suicidal and traumatized.
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She is no longer at that school but still has social anxiety and PTSD, having nightmares every night about the abuse she suffered.
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On top of that she is terrified of what puberty will do to her body, as testosterone will change her from a young girl who passes easily as a cisgender girl, into someone with masculine characteristics that horrify her.
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I am part of the GPA team to try and find places for people like my daughter so that she doesn't have to fear how she will be treated, but will be respected as the loving human that she is.
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What I think needs to change:
English society is moving ever closer to an apartheid approach to transgender people - suggesting they are treated outside hospitals, and not allowed to socially or medically transition.
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Transgender people of all ages need to be seen and understood as the loving and courageous people they are, not as the threats that some people claim they might be.
L's Story
Why I care:
I am a cisgender woman, and my son is transgender. I see the pain my child goes through by not physically being himself. He worries that when he makes the physical changes to masculinise, that he won't be accepted as male by his male peers. It is heart breaking - I do not have a magic wand to make him feel better.
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What I think needs to change:
Society needs to change! ​
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We are human before any labels.