Mini Mag Trans Lives Matter Issue 2021

Alt.Cardiff January 2021 Issue 1

Trans Lives Matter

Alt.Cardiff

News

Plans to rejuvenate Cardiff Bay area continue as new live music arena moves a step closer

Cardiff Bay Arena is intended to be a hub for live music in the south west of the UK when it opens its doors to crowds in 2024

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lans for a new live music arena in Cardiff Bay moved a step closer last week when Live Nation was announced as the preferred bidder of its construction.

The arena is part of a plan to rejuvenate the Cardiff Bay area and completely reimagine the Red Dragon Centre – which already houses a cinema, a bowling alley, and a variety of restaurants.

Cardiff Council leader Cllr Huw Thomas shared his enthusiasm for the new arena, saying the Council believes it will have a similar impact on the Bay as St David’s Two had on the city centre. He was also keen to set the public’s minds at ease by adding that the building of the arena is not funded by the Council itself, but is a private sector initiative. He added, “It’s an incredibly exciting opportunity for Cardiff, especially as we look to emerge from the economic damage of the pandemic.”

Coming soon to a Bay near you...

That economic damage will take some fixing, but early estimates by the Council suggest that the arena will bring in £100m for the local economy per year, while also creating nearly 2,000 local jobs.

Cabinet member for investment and development Cllr Russell Goodway noted the promise of Live Nation’s involvement. The entertainment giant runs nearly 240 venues in 12 countries across the world, and Cllr Goodway was confident the company could provide great assistance in the rejuvenation of the Bay area.

Richard Burton exhibition details the life of the international star of stage and screen

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new exhibition at National Museum Cardiff details the life of film actor Richard Burton.

Becoming Richard Burton features such personal effects as his diaries, papers, and other possessions, many of which are on public display for the first time. Other highlights include the costumes worn by Burton during his roles in the 1963 film Cleopatra and various Shakespeare adaptations throughout his career.

The exhibition is a partnership between National Museum Wales and Swansea University, where many of the objects were previously held in the Richard

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Burton Archive, first formed in 2005 with the help of Sally Burton.

Speaking about the exhibition, National Museum Wales’ director general David Anderson extended his thanks to Swansea University and Sally Burton, and said he was proud to showcase a Welshman of such talent in the museum.

One of Hollywood’s most handsome faces

Temporary housing units to be built at former gasworks

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joint venture between Cardiff Council and housing firm Beattie Passive will build new, temporary housing units for homeless families.

The plans, announced at the end of October, will deliver 48 one-, two-, and three-bedroom flats to provide temporary housing while a more permanent solution is found.

Cabinet member for housing and communities Cllr Lynda Thorne said the Council was extremely pleased to be working with Beattie Passive on the venture.

She added, “We’ve made excellent progress in supporting people who’ve been homeless over the last few months and our vision for services for the future is now taking shape very quickly.”

Ron Beattie, managing director of Beattie Passive, shared Cllr Thorne’s enthusiasm for the scheme, saying, “We are delighted to be working with Cardiff Council to deliver this much needed scheme for families experiencing homelessness in Cardiff. Our Passivhaus standard modular housing … will deliver high quality, high performance temporary homes for these families.”

The venture forms part of the Council’s ambitious plans to tackle homelessness in Cardiff. The full plan will deliver 2,000 new homes in and around the city, half of which are to be built by 2022.

Homelessness in Cardiff is an ongoing issue for the local council.

In 2018 the Office for National Statistics reported that of the 2,058 households in temporary accommodation across Wales, 38% were households with children, while research carried out by the Welsh government in 2019 showed that Cardiff reported the highest number of households assessed as homeless (2,157).

Interview

Alt.Cardiff

‘Lockdown robbed me of the way I’d normally grieve’

Heads Above the Waves co-founder Hannah Morgan shares her thoughts on grief, lockdowns, and changing how we discuss mental health problems

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ockdowns across the country made 2020 a difficult year for many people, but Heads Above the Waves co-founder Hannah Morgan had it tougher than most.

Most years Hannah, who cofounded the mental health notfor-profit in 2013, is happily very busy in her day-to-day life, which meant that the UK-wide lockdown in March was something of a shock to her system – just not quite in the way she imagined. “[To begin with] I felt so refreshed and so positive and optimistic, but I think that was just because life’s so hectic for me all the time,” she says. Being unable to work two of her jobs meant Hannah was able to focus her time on producing blog content for Heads Above the Waves.

Ebbs and flows

Self-love is punk rock, as the saying goes

As someone who has dealt with many bereavements over her life,

Hannah, now in her early 30s, is no stranger to death. But the passing of a close relative hit her hard, and having no support network in place caused more difficulty.

“Things were really, really difficult because I didn’t have any of my usual coping techniques,” she admits. “I couldn’t go out and see my friends, or reminisce, or visit my family. I think lockdown robbed me of the way I’d normally grieve, or how I know how to grieve now, and I think that was a real turning point for me … I really started to struggle.”

Stress and self-doubt piled up, resulting in a cycle of being unable to work productively because of worrying about it too much. A month before restrictions were lifted in the summer, Hannah admitted to her boyfriend she had nothing left to give: “I felt like an empty vessel, like a jug I’d poured everything out of and it was just there, useless. I needed a top-up.”

“I felt like an empty vessel, like a jug I’d poured everything out of and it was just there, useless” Hannah isn’t afraid to admit that she struggles with change, so having to make so many adjustments to her lifestyle in the past year has been a struggle.

She’s also always very careful to take care of her own mental health, but admits to feeling overwhelmed more than once since lockdowns began.

On the horizon Looking forward, Hannah is keen to tackle the issues of inclusivity that plague discussions around mental health. “I think as much as things have come on leaps and bounds, there’s still so much more to do to make sure that everybody can feel supported,” she says.

Ever the optimist, Hannah is excited for what the future holds: “There’s a lot more work to do,” she admits, “but we’re ready to sink our teeth into it.”

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Alt.Cardiff

Long Reads

Wales’ Rising Hatred The Welsh government says hate has no home in Wales – so why are transphobic hate crimes on the rise?

Words: Matt Taylor

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Long Reads

n 2020, the UK is more divided than it has been in decades. As became evident this past summer, hatred is everywhere – and that hatred has resulted in increasing levels of violence towards minority communities in Britain.

Research published by the UK Government in October showed that there were over 105,000 hate crimes recorded by police services in England and Wales in 2019/20 (an increase of eight percent on the year before) – but this increase is not evenly distributed.

The report found that, while hate crimes as a whole only increased by eight percent, stats for the LGBTQ+ community show more than double this increase: hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation were up by nineteen percent, trans identity by sixteen percent. Hate crimes motivated by race and disability showed smaller increases, while religious hate crimes fell for the first time since 2013 – so why is the trans community so targeted?

A lack of education

Image: Ted Eytan

Jessica Rees, Wales hate crime manager for Victim Support UK, believes this is down to a combination of factors. Chief among them, she says, is the way trans people are portrayed by the media at large. “It’s definitely being pushed by certain agendas,” she says, “such as [the rhetoric that] trans rights mean women’s rights would be jeopardised, which just isn’t the case at all.”

“When media attention is given to people who want to self-identify as a penguin or whatever, that doesn’t help the cause of trans or non-binary people,” she adds. “It always comes back to the media and a general lack of education and awareness in the wider public around what it is to be trans.”

That lack of education is something that Jessica, and many other allies, believe needs to be fixed. Education in schools, she says, “would be ideal,” but even without that learning in early life she has noticed trends among allies. “It seems to be that millennials [and younger generations as a whole] are more accepting of different identities,” she points out, “so if we can keep that going then, hopefully, we can see some positive change in upcoming generations.”

Jessica is full of praise for the way the Welsh government has responded to hate crimes, but feels that the UK government in Westminster now needs to step in and make a bigger commitment to tackling the issue. Increased social media monitoring and police funding, she says, are the two best ways of reducing hate crime.

Alt.Cardiff

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‘Support and signposting’ Increased funding is certainly on the agenda for the Welsh government; since 2014, the government has provided funding for Victim Support Cymru to operate the National Hate Crime Report and Support Centre. In a statement, the government said this continued funding “has helped to create a reporting system across Wales which provides an initial point of contact for victims and provides advocacy, support and signposting.”

This is something that Jessica feels has been instrumental in showing the Welsh government’s commitment to tackling hate crime – a commitment which is set to continue into 2021 when the government launches new, educational anti-hate crime campaigns across Wales to increase awareness and reduce the issue of hate crimes.

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Alt.Cardiff

Long Reads

South Wales Police, meanwhile, doubled down on its pledge to tackle hate crimes. Speaking on behalf of SWP, senior news and content officer Rhodri Kendall said, “We recognise the insidious and divisive nature of these types of crimes, so we remain vigilant and actively encourage victims to come forward to report their experiences.” According to Victim Support Cymru, many victims of hate crimes do not report them because of mistrust in the police system, but this was disputed by South Wales Police.

“The accuracy and integrity of our crime recording has been recognised by the HMIC previously and we also take the recognition and recording of hate crime very seriously,” Officer Kendall went on to say, before promising that South Wales Police would prosecute anyone who commits such “insensitive offences which cause both physical and mental harm.”

Everyday occurrences Those “insensitive offences” can range from microaggressions (such as deliberately misgendering someone) to more serious physical or verbal assault.

Research published by Stonewall Cymru and YouGov in 2017 showed that over half of trans people surveyed (52 percent) had experienced a hate crime in the twelve months prior to the survey, while the same number admitted to avoiding certain streets where they live because of previously unsavoury experiences.

Discriminatory incidents can occur anywhere, as the Stonewall research shows: Sade says she was denied entry to a bar by a bouncer purely on account of her being trans, while Hannah was told she must use the male toilets of a nightclub by security. Jo reports

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being repeatedly misgendered in a clothing store, while Ari was “denied entry to male changing rooms in a store because the sales assistant decided [he] was female.”

These types of incidents, known as microaggressions, may seem small, but can be just as harmful as more severe incidents.

Stonewall reports that almost one in four LGBTQ+ people surveyed had been threatened with physical violence, while one in eight had been physically assaulted.

Research by Lee Broadstock details the story of one trans person who was verbally abused by passers-by, before being hit with a car by a nearby taxi driver.

Hate crimes such as these are far too common in the UK – but the next steps must be taken together in order to overcome transphobia.

As Jessica says, “Cis people need to lead the way and stand up against transphobia.” Trans lives matter, and only by coming together can we fix our divided society and pave the way for a safer, more inclusive country that is truly united.

2,540 The number of transpho-

bic hate crimes in England and Wales last year

16%

The rate of increase compared to the year before

78%

The proportion of transphobic hate crimes that went unpunished last year

“Cis people need to lead the way and stand up against transphobia”