Why LGBT Youth Scotland is letting trans teens tell their own stories

Yet the row over gender reform legislation and the highly public scrutiny of healthcare for young transgender people has placed LGBT Youth Scotland in the eye of the storm.

The right-wing press regularly publishes articles accusing the charity of “brainwashing” children, which are enthusiastically shared by politicians critical of their work.

Yet so often the voices of the children actually impacted by these issues are lost in the clamour.

“We’ve not always had the capacity to record what’s going on with young people and what their experience of being LGBT+ in Scotland is actually like,” said Clare Forrest, a development manager for the (Un)seen, (Un)heard project launched by the charity last year.

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Working with the National Library of Scotland, the charity is aiming to create a permanent archive of the experiences of young LGBT+ people in Scotland.

“We’re looking to capture the stories of young people who use our services today but also those who have never engaged with us or may have used us in the past,” said Forrest.

“We want to capture the experience of what it’s like being a young LGBT+ person in every part of the country.”

Whether it’s through interviews or more creative ways of recording a young person’s story, such as comic book or intergenerational workshops, the charity is seeking to archive the reality of their experiences – both good and bad.

Indeed, a recent survey conducted by the charity found that happiness among young transgender people in Scotland halved from 59% to 28% between 2012 and 2022.

Crowds march through Edinburgh during the city's Pride celebration (Image: Jane Barlow)

“We’ve had some really heart-wrenching stories and we’ve had some really beautiful, joyful experiences, too,” said Forrest.

“I wouldn’t want to say that everybody’s experience is harder than it was a decade ago but young people do mention a lot of challenges such as the way LGBT+ people are portrayed in the media.

“We also hear a lot of people sharing their experiences of loneliness and being unsure how to tell whether someone is safe to confide in.”

Chief executive Mhairi Crawford confirmed that the tenor of the debate surrounding LGBT+ issues in Scotland has inevitably had an impact on young people growing up in its shadow.

“If you look at the data between 2012 and 2017 things were improving for LGBT+ people,” she said.

“But in 2022 there’s a change. Now, that’s coming off the back of Covid but there’s also the wider environment which is getting more challenging.

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“The public toxicity, which has almost been validated by Covid and so much of the discourse being online, it’s actually been really damaging for young LGBT+ people.”

The charity left X/Twitter more than a year ago due to the extreme nature of the abuse levelled at their staff.

Yet their work is still regularly discussed on the platform.

For example, claims the charity were encouraging children as young as four to ask one another if they were transgender spread like wildfire on the site following an article published by a right-wing newspaper.

Yet the reality of the charity’s LGBT+ Charter scheme is far less sensationalist.

Rather than going into schools and quizzing children about their identities – as was often purported on social media – the charity helps teachers set up youth groups where LGBT+ issues can be discussed in an age-appropriate and safe environment.

There is no obligation for children to attend or for the much-reported questionnaire asking children how they identify to be issued.

“When we work with schools we don’t work with young people directly,” said Crawford.

“That’s very well-defined for us because we focus on a whole school approach where you’ve got leadership and policy training for teachers and then monitoring and evaluation in place so you can look at it and see what has a lasting, tangible impact.

“When coupled with an LGBT-inclusive curriculum, we think it provides a nice balanced view.”

Scotland’s rollout of LGBT-inclusive education in 2021 stands in opposition to the prevailing logic of both the Conservatives and the Labour Party, who appear to believe that mere mention of transgender people in schools is to be avoided for fear of influencing a child’s future decisions.

On Monday, Keir Starmer claimed he was not “in favour of ideology being taught in our schools on gender” – casting Scottish Labour's previous support of LGBT-inclusive education into doubt. 

“One thing we've heard from some of the intergenerational workshops was older people being surprised because they felt they were targeted for being gay when they were younger in the same way young trans people are targeted now,” said Forrest.

LGBT Youth Scotland chief executive Mhairi Crawford (Image: LGBT Youth Scotland)

“The narratives are exactly the same today for young trans people as they were for gay people during Section 28.

“It’s partly why I feel the project is so important. It lets young people change the narrative and share their own story rather than it being told on their behalf."

The topic of transgender people, and particularly children, is one which inspires fury among certain communities online.

So much so that LGBT Youth Scotland’s work in attempting to support them results in anger being directed towards staff members themselves.

“There’s a significant impact on staff,” said Crawford.

“Particularly on those working in areas such as education and doing their absolute utmost to protect and celebrate young people.

“It leaves people scared to go to their jobs, scared to go out and deliver a training session because they don’t know what they’re going to come up against.”

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Of course, criticism of charities should be aired and even welcomed in a society which aims to foster wellbeing amongst everyone, regardless of identity.

Even if one fundamentally disagrees with their work, the reality is that for many young people LGBT Youth Scotland provides a tether of connection during the tumultuous experience of growing up gay, bi or trans.

Yet even in the context of severely overstretched gender identity services within the NHS, the support provided by third sector organisations is still viewed as a battleground.

Earlier this year, Tory MSP Meghan Gallacher called for Scottish Government to launch a review into the work of LGBT Youth Scotland amid calls for them to be banned in schools.

However, the question remains over who should pick up the evident gap in support for children questioning their sexuality or gender if not the third sector.

“It can be demoralising and disheartening,” said Forrest. “But it doesn’t always feel as if a lot of the criticism is based in reality.

“Whereas the work really does.

“Yes, it can be challenging when there’s negative press but when you see the impact we have on young people, when you see their reaction when they see a piece of their art or writing on display in a museum, or even see them feel safe enough to talk about their feelings for the first time, it feels huge.

“It feels real.”

More information about the (Un)seen, (Un)heard project can be found on the LGBT Youth Scotland website.