Fly the trans flag

Today I changed the flag in my background and I hope to encourage you to do so too.

This week Chrysalis launches our allies visibility campaign where we encourage allies everywhere to Fly the Trans Flag during Trans Awareness Week 13th – 19th November. Everyone needs allies, everyone needs friends, someone they can trust and turn to. Chrysalis has long been that ally to trans people and in all our engagement with professionals, indeed with people everywhere, we meet more allies. We meet the person who when their friend comes out to them says “cool, how can I support you?”, we meet the HR manager who has updated all the policies and procedures to make it really easy for someone to change their name, we meet the building services technician who is pressing for gender neutral facilities because they are fed up of having to go to toilets on different floors, we meet the dad who took their son shopping, we meet the aunt who has taken their niece in for a few days. We know that allies are everywhere. We see you on social media, sharing positive posts and affirming hashtags. We see you questioning bigots and defending trans people. We see you, we affirm you and we want to make you more visible.

By flying the trans flag you are saying, you are saying “if you need to speak I’ll support you”, you are saying “what can I do to make your life that bit easier?” But most importantly you are saying “it’s OK to be you”

With the wonders of covid-19 and lockdown you might be thinking I never leave my house how can I show that I’m a trans ally? Have no fear all the flags are here. We have desk flags, flag pins, big flags and even flag face masks all for the majestic donation of £20. Of why not go the whole hog and install a flagpole outside your house? Did you know that there are no restrictions as long as you’re only flying the one flag? So you could have your Progress Pride flag up all summer and then your trans flag in November. It’s a quick and easy way to brighten up the street!

So watch this space, follow us on Social Media and get in touch. Right now you’ll need to email us to get your flags but our webmistress An is working hard behind the scenes and before the end of the week we will have our webshop up for all you flag goodies.

Last week was another busy week. Catching up with Paeton, Josie and Callum about Tour de Trans, so incredibly proud of them. From nothing to a ride across the country in less than five months and over £2500 raised for Chrysalis.

Trustee meeting on Thursday, meeting potential new trustees and talking about the AGM. If you are interested in joining our board then drop me a message.

Monday came with a lovely surprise from Hoodlum Fang and Chlo who raised £240 for Chrysalis at their pole dancing seminar over the weekend. Chlo writes “I wanted to support Chrysalis as my chosen charity as I wanted to support a charity that was helping local people to me within the community.“

This week is interviews and so I’m signing off very soon and on Thursday we being the implementation of CiviCRM, the future really is here.

Before I go I thought I would share this photo of one of my colleagues “helping” me work