LGBTEQ N.G.O: Building a safer world for trans and non binary communities during Covid-19.
Who we are
We are a group of students at Panteion University that decided to participate in the Social Issues Social Innovation and Corporate responsibility Project for 2021–2022. We are Chiara Kindel, a German Erasmus student; Aleida Rottink, a Dutch Erasmus student; Irene Bessi , a Greek Student; Stamatis Tsiboukellis also a Greek student; Natalia Aguilera, a Spanish Erasmus student and Sandra Jiménez, another Spanish student.
During this project, we joined our forces, our different mentalities, our different origins, personalities and states of mind to create something strong together. We have chosen the 9th goal of the United Nations which had to do with Gender Equality. We as a group of University students from different countries different genders and sexual orientations agreed to specify that goal and deal with LGBTQ+ Community.
Trans & non binary communities in Greece
Greece is a country that isn’t still very familiar with issues that have to do with sexual orientation and social gender. Both society and Government seem to be non-supportive on a big scale. More significantly according to surveys we remarked that this discrimination is more oriented to gender and not to sexual orientation issues. In Greece, there is no financial support to people that are considering a gender transition even though it is legal. Also according to the Hellenic law system, the recognition of non-binary gender in Greece is still illegal.
The trans- & non-binary community during Covid-19
According to several reports, the transgender community has been intensively impacted by the pandemic financially mentally and physically. Transgender people are more vulnerable to being infected by the coronavirus due to several factors:
LGBTQ+ people have higher rates of HIV and cancer, and therefore may have a sensitive immune system. According to NCTE’s 2015 US Trans Survey, trans people are five times more likely to be living with HIV compared to the general population.
LGBTQ+ people also smoke tobacco at a rate of 50% higher than the general population. The coronavirus is a respiratory illness that could be especially harmful to smokers.
Additionally, 1 out of 5 transgender adults has at least one or more chronic conditions, such as diabetes, arthritis, or asthma. Fear of discrimination, marginalisation and lack of financial aid keeps many people from that LGBTQ+ community from going to the doctor. This may impact the potential novel coronavirus effect on us in three ways:
Stigma and discrimination make transgender and non-binary people hesitate to ask for help.
Lack of access to health care, such as lack of insurance.
Our idea conception
These concerning data led us to concentrate on Trans and Non-Binary People especially now during the Covid-19 Pandemic and start our journey by creating a non-governmental organisation.
Our main idea was to create a non-profitable organisation that is going to help transgender and non-binary people because due to Covid-19 trans and non-binary people are more vulnerable to be affected because of their immune system, hormones therapy, financial and mental problems combined with the social marginalisation they face. According to surveys people from this social group have fewer chances to find a job, are often dealing with poverty, homelessness, sex work, drug addiction and lack of access on goods and healthcare.
Our main goal was to raise public awareness by informing the public and raising money to help these groups practically. This vision helped us create the name of our organization which is related to our objective and bring LGBTEQ+ to life. LGBTEQ+ does not only refer to Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender people. Our initiative was that we put another dimension in our project and included the term Emotional Quotient which has to do with self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management. At that time our organization was just a vision that needed to become a plan and an act afterwards.
Plan Design
Starting with the plan we decided to specify more the means to finance our organization while setting our educational and informational goals to cause a social change. We realised that the discrimination of trans and non-binary people had dual dimensions. The first dimension had to do with the people that face these discriminations and the second dimension had to do with people who induce consciously or unconsciously this phenomenon. Our main goal was to be practical, efficient yet realistic. We refused to find unrealistic ideal solutions that we knew were not supposed to happen immediately. Our organization initiative is that we are reaching out directly to the communities and offering support. While other organizations are only developing financial solutions to help these citizens ours is trying to direct the problem and provide different social measures.
Moving on to our plan. How are we going to help transgender and non-binary people?
First, by education. We planned to organise workshops on high schools while including sexual education and information about the transgender community crisis. We also planned to organize workshops in places like hospitals and other public institutions to educate the staff, inform them and mobilize them.
Second, financial support. It is undeniable that help must be both theoretical and also practical. Transgender and non-binary people face financial problems due to their marginalisation and lack of governmental support. We created a fundraising website where we collaborate with volunteers that are willing to offer every kind of help to transgender and non-binary people. This includes offering jobs, clothes and food. Last but not least we created F.U Fighters Podcast a Thematic weekly Podcast powered by our transgender and non-binary fighters. A chance to communicate their difficulties, inform the listeners and raise public awareness.
Our Miro Boards
Our Miro Boards
After we completed our plan we had to act to bring LGBTEQ+ Organisation to life. Our first step was the creation of our website by Tilda Platform.
Social Media creation and digital engagement
After creating our website it was time to get some feedback and create content on social media in order to engage the digital community and attract the public. We wanted to inform people about our vision of our projects and raise public awareness for the transgender and non-binary community. Social Media plays a central role in our organization because we can succeed in ‘connective’ action. By sensitizing the digital public we can merge successful social movements with the aim of technology. In LGBTEQ+ we believe that together we are stronger and able to succeed in our goals.
We also wanted to raise awareness and spark conversations with different people in order to expand our vision about the issue of the LGBTQ discrimination. That is why we have been present in social media, uploading posts about our goals and aims with this organization.
Our first social media was Instagram and then we also created Facebook and Twitter Accounts. Our profiles offer information about the LgbtEq organization, about our goals and our vision. We share links from our podcast series named F.U Fighters and posts to educate the public and achieve more digital engagement. We believe that connective actions have the power to change social structures and achieve social innovation and corporare resposnibility. We also shared historical information by celebrating and popularising the lives of three transgender people who changed the course of the LGBTQ+ discrimination and were an example for all transgender community. These were Lili Elbe, the first known transgender in history, Laurence Michael Dillon, the first man to undergo a phalloplasty and Marsha P. Johnson, which ended being a famous trans person because she participated in the Stonewall Pub Riots.
Ready set go!
After approaching people from our transgender and non-binary community we started to realise their real problems, needs, lacks and goals. In some cases, our assumptions were completely different from the real phenomenon. The discontinuance of the financial support for hormones therapy from the Government was shocking information we didn’t know since we talked to some transgender people from the community. Additionally, the rate of brutality and rejection that non-binary people face including the fact that being a non-binary person in Greece is still illegal was one of our biggest frustrations. This information and much more was featured in our weekly podcast named F.U Fighters which were powered by two members of our organization Irene and Stamatis and the people Chris and Joan who agreed to embrace our effort.
Chris is a non-binary person who lives in Athens with her family. It still hasn’t come out to its family due to “safety nets”. Even though it hasn’t faced intensively the marginalisation and violence as it mentions it has experienced racist behaviours and discrimination. It believes that Greece as both society and Government is not a safe or welcoming place for transgender and non-binary people. It considers leaving its country and moving to Ireland for personal reasons. It hopes that Greece one day will be a safe land for every human being no matter its gender.
Moving on to our second episode which was powered by our second guest Joanna. Joan as she refers to herself is a trans woman from a village in Greece who moved to Athens for a better future. Her family didn’t know about her gender transition and she started hormone’s therapy during the previous quarantine. Her everyday life is full of struggles including difficulties to find a job, discrimination from society and lack of institutional support. She has faced some very violent behaviors and racist attacks from unknown people. She often feels that her life’s in jeopardy but she seems to be strong and ready to fight. She believes that people need to react to these phenomenons and make a move forward. “ I felt very relieved when a woman in a cafeteria Called out some random guys that were harassing me”
Coming to an end or a begging ?
Working on this project showed us that creating change in the world is not always straightforward. The process is characterised by discovering new important aspects, but also by constantly stepping back and readjusting. Even if the basic framework of the project is in place and even if it has already started, the process of adapting and improving is continuous. Dealing with the group affected by the envisaged problem has turned out to be particularly fundamental. to listen to their needs and experiences and at the same time to recognize and eliminate our own structural prejudices. No one is free from such structural imprints and certain images that were conveyed to us while growing up. Thus it is even more important as a person who is not part of the LGBTQ+ community but at the same time part of this project, to act sensitively and empathetically and to question yourself, not to patronize and to act as an ally. Even if the basic idea remained the same — to improve the living conditions of the LGBTQ+ community — testing it in the real world showed us that we have to be very clear and precise in what we really want to reach with the project. It became clear that the main goals of providing financial and emotional support and educating society can only be achieved through precisely planned actions. This resulted in our aforementioned projects, which thrive on the fact that we build these platforms, but free them up for those affected at the appropriate moments and give them a voice.
Project Manager
Dr. Betty Tsakarestou, Ph.D Associate Professor & Head of Advertising and Public Relations Lab.
Participants
Irene Bessi, _stamatis_, Aleida Rottink, Natalia Aguilera, Sandra Jiménez Vaquero
