This year, Riyadh Khalaf returns to host. Joining Riyadh will be Trans activists and non-binary couple Fox and Owl, as well as long-distance couple Saskia and Lily. The panel will day place on the 25th of February, at the University of Westminster. Read more about what else you can expect at the event.
Fox Fisher starred in Channel 4’s My Transexual Summer series, and now runs a Youtube channel with partner Owl where they talk about the trials and tribulations of being trans and nonbinary. Talking about being on the panel, they explained that :
“Youtube is a platform for all sorts of people to sprout opinions. It’s important to talk about the effects of ‘putting yourself out there’ and how the connections and community outweighs nasty trolling. YouTube has been instrumental to many people transitioning, including myself. I watched so many videos on medical and social transitioning before I took the leap.”
Saskia and Lily are a young couple who met whilst a boarding school, where being LGBT wasn’t best understood. Knowing the need for a safe place, about being invited to National Student Pride they said:
“We love that student pride is run by students for students, and that it provides a safe space for LGBT young people to ask questions and feel proud of their sexuality!”.
Whilst they both currently identify as demisexual, they are both “very aware that sexuality is fluid and ever changing, and how we identify now may not be how we identify forever”.
Many LGBT youth fall victim to bullying, and suffer with mental health issues – They’re statistically more than twice as likely as their straight peers to feel depressed and think about or attempt suicide. A survey of 7,000 16 to 24 year olds found that 54% of young LGBT people reported either self-harming now or at some point in the past.
