Today is International Transgender Day of Visibility. A day where we celebrate and acknowledge the lives and contributions of members of the trans community. This year, we are proud to profile some of our members and share what Transgender Day of Visibility means to them.

 

DS Christian Owens – Merseyside Police

I have 26 years policing experience. I have been a Detective since 2006, specialising in PVP and I am currently posted to the Community Engagement Unit, but more importantly, I have become ‘me’. A visible and very proud trans man, who is driving positive change to improve the future for others.

I started my career in October 1994, as a 23 year old female police constable. In 2012, I made the biggest decision of my life and embarked on my journey of transition that would finally enable me to live my life truly as me – Christian Owens – a man.

In 2009, I had started to socially transition in my private life, dressing and identifying as a man behind closed doors and publicly on the few occasions when I felt strong enough.

I was leading a double life. A man at home and a woman at work. I was racing home because I was desperate to be me. Then, on 10th December 2012, having started my medical transition 8 weeks earlier, I walked through the doors of Merseyside Police HQ for the first time as DS Christian Owens. It felt liberating to finally be me, but extremely scary. I was scared of being misgendered, not being acknowledged as a man, of being bullied and isolated and losing my friends and colleagues. I got stared at, looked at strangely in the toilets, male colleagues would often awkwardly leave the toilets when I entered, refusing to use them. I heard ignorant comments, such as “I don’t get it” and “is that a man or a woman” and people did fail to challenge at the times that I really needed them to.

But what really matters is what we, as an organisation, have done since that time and how I have grown as a person. I am proud to say that we have progressed, improved and made important changes. Chief Officers are visible and want to raise the levels of knowledge and understanding, in order to empathise and fully support. But this is just the beginning and there is a long way to go. It is so important that we continue the momentum, encourage learning and awareness and listen to lived experiences like mine.

I now provide educational inputs across law enforcement and external organisations, as a visible officer and transgender speaker, to raise awareness of my personal journey of discovery. I live my life to the full and I’m grateful for every single day and it gives me an enormous amount of pleasure and satisfaction to now be a role model for others.

What does TDOV mean to me? Transgender visibility inspires people and gives them hope and strength to be who they really are! Everyone deserves to embrace the power within their true authentic self, live their legacy and love their life. And it makes me proud to be able to inspire others to do this by being visible and out as a very proud and happy gay trans man!

Trans Awareness Week is the time leading up to Trans Day of Remembrance. Trans awareness week aims to raise the profile of issues affecting the trans community as well as the stories of trans people and their allies. Trans Day of remembrance is a day dedicated to remembering victims of transphobic hate crime.

Ricki Kettle of Northern Ireland Civil Service was Stonewall’s Trans Role Model of the Year in 2019 had this to say about Trans awareness week:

“Trans Awareness Week is especially important for me as not only does it focus on promoting the visibility of trans people, it also highlights the importance of trans allies and how they can help make a difference to trans peoples lived experience.  Despite some progress in recent years, stigma against transgender people remains a reality.  In my experience, trans people want to live their authentic life and with the support of allies in this journey, it is made much more rewarding and empowering.  My own journey was impacted positively by friends, family and work colleagues and the many allies in our community.

“There are many resources that allies can access online on how to be a good ally, even watching a programme on Netflix such as ‘Disclosure’ will go towards educating people on just some of the issues that trans people face.  Many trans people’s lives are like many others, we go to work, clean our house, make dinner, take the dog for a walk, have a glass of wine or watch a movie.  We just want to do these things as our authentic selves, it’s no biggie! – Happy Trans Awareness Week!”

Paul Bloomer, Co-Chair of the PSNI LGBT+ Network followed on with:

“I would like to take this chance to tell the Trans and non-binary people of our organisation that the LGBT+ Network is working with senior leaders to make this organisation a better place for Trans and non-binary people to work in. We need your help though, we need the voices and lived experience of Trans people to help us drive the positive change we need in this organisation. We have a reserved seat on our committee for a member of the Trans community and we would be delighted to welcome into that seat.”

In celebration of LGBT History Month the Network will be profiling a selection of LGBT figures who have played significant roles in shaping modern LGBT culture or had a significant impact on LGBT issues in the public consciousness.

Today we remember Marsha P. Johnson. She was a trans black woman activist that lived in New York until her death in 1992. She is remembered by some as the person who threw the stone which broke the front window of the Stonewall Inn, in New York on the 28th June 1969. While the account that she cast the first stone is disputed, what is not in dispute is that the Stonewall uprising birthed the modern LGBT rights movement.

Marsha is believed to have played a key role in the uprising that began at the Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village after police raided the gay bar. Protests followed over the next six days. Marsha was on the front lines of those protests against oppressive policing, which disproportionately affected the LGBT community in New York at that time. Throughout her life she advocated tirelessly on behalf of trans people, sex workers and people with HIV/AIDS. She did all this in heels, fabulous outfits and flower headpieces.

“We were … throwing over cars and screaming in the middle of the street ’cause we were so upset ’cause they closed that place,” Marsha told historian Eric Marcus in a 1989 interview. “We were just saying, ‘no more police brutality’ and ‘we had enough of police harassment in the Village and other places’.”

The first anniversary of the protests prompted the first gay Pride parade in 1970.

An interaction with a reporter gave us one of her many memorable quotes, when asked what she wanted from the Pride protests she responded: “Darling, I want my gay rights now.”

Marsha was a drag queen and a sex worker; she was often homeless and she is remembered as one of the most significant activists for transgender rights, although the term ‘transgender’ wasn’t commonly used during her lifetime. Johnson identified as a ‘transvestite’, gay and a drag queen, and used she/her pronouns.

Marsha died in disputed circumstances following the 1992 New York Pride march. Her body was recovered from the Hudson river with a large wound to the back of her head. Her death is recorded by the NYC Coroner as a suicide but her friends and family dispute this.

Constable Paul Bloomer says: “It’s sad that she never got to see the many changes that have come about as a result of the activist movement she helped start. She never got to see police eventually embrace the LGBT community and become part of the Pride parades which were once protests against police action. She never got to see the New York Police Department on the 6th June 2019 make a formal apology for the past treatment of LGBT people and the raid which started the Stonewall uprising.

“The actions taken by the NYPD were wrong, plain and simple” said James P. O’Neill, the NYPD Commissioner. That frank admission was a momentous moment for LGBT activists, many of whom felt it was long overdue. The city of New York has also recently commissioned a public monument dedicated to Marsha’s memory.

Constable Paul Bloomer continued: “When I was searching for images for this article I found it hard not to smile when looking at pictures of her. Marsha will always be remembered as an icon of the LGBT rights movement. Her smiling face remains a beacon of inspiration to many today.”