Yesterday, on the 25th February, 7 of our young people got together at Number 18 in Poole to help us make a film. We wanted to create a film talking about homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying that will be a valuable resource for our schools anti-HBT project. A project, funded by the Department for Education and the Equalities Office, to tackle the very same bullying we came together to talk about on film.
"I'm surprised how positive this experience has been considering how bad it was at the time. Being around people reminds me of all the support I have." - Ronnie
Talking about these kinds of experiences is never easy, but it was inspiring to see how everyone was so forthcoming about their stories. It was a valuable bonding experience for everyone involved and emotions were running high. George, the director, was definitely finding it emotional during the individual interviews as it was his first time hearing about the reality of LGBT+ people's bullying experiences.
"It's been quite tough. It's nothing I've been around, experienced, or heard about before. It's sad to hear what you guys have been through. Your stories are very powerful." - George
For our young people, being a part of something that can bring about change and prevent what happened to them from happening again is priceless.
"It was a horrible experience but being able to apply it to something like this almost makes me glad to have been through it. Knowing that all our experiences could be the catalyst for a better school environment for LGBT+ people makes me see the experience a different way." - Eli
We admire our young people here at Space so much for being so brave enough to be apart of this project. A massive thank you to them, to George, and to Number 18 for hosting this project.
"I've been blown away by young peoples ability to share their stories and them doing so will make a change." - Sarah
We are the generation of change.
