A brand new website has been set up by a Liverpool charity to support transgender people and the wider LGBT community.
By The Way was launched to coincide with the fifth instalment of Liverpool Pride, which was held earlier this month and received a great reception.
The site has been funded by Liverpool City Council, Liverpool CCG and BBC Children in Need and received support from other bodies including Merseyside Trans Alliance and Liverpool CAMHS Partnership.
The site has been developed by Danny Kilbride from the Ariel Trust and Dan Stone of Liverpool female to male support group LIV.FAST network over the past twelve months with aims to address current issues facing those who identify as transgender or gender curious.
Dan Stone said:
“The portrayal of trans people isn’t always positive, especially in the media.
“It’s really important that the trans community is visible and represented positively.
“This visibility is especially important for young trans people and young people questioning their gender identity in order to identify trans roles-models, allies and support networks.”
He added:
“This started off with workshops with a group of young trans people that we identified from Merseyside.
“They shared their own personal stories about growing up and identifying differences in their gender identity and shared their thoughts about the issues and barriers they came across while growing up.
“It’s realistic issues you might face every day, for example getting your haircut – if you’ve never been to a barbers before what do you ask for? And all girls and boys schools have their own specific uniforms.
“If you go to an all boys school and want to begin your transition from male to female, what do you do?”
For more information go to btw.arieltrust.com
Source and image credit: Liverpool Echo