THEY POWER

Jamie Windust explores the power of the non-binary community as they introduce us to seven fierce trailblazers.

I’m sat in my, what I call, ‘London Office’, which is actually just a coffee shop that I’ve called home for the past six months staring at this page and just not knowing where to begin. And as a writer, that’s bizarre. I even took myself off to Tate Britain for a gloriously camp ‘emotional stroll in the rain’ to try and recalibrate my brain, but I still couldn’t begin. I can’t really tell you why either. I write about being non-binary all the time and it’s the first thing that my talons on the end of my fingers go to do when I open my laptop. Maybe it’s because this is a moment for me and so many other people. My first cover interview for a magazine that I used to flick through in my small town but was too scared to actually buy. It’s one of the first times that I’ve seen a group of powerful, femme, non-binary people grace the cover of a magazine that actually cares about them, and isn’t just appropriating their looks in the sake of an editorial orgasm. A platform and community that is truly allowing gender non-conforming people to be the stars, and tell their own stories.

For so long, we’ve been the topic of debate. The sensationalist story that graces the covers of some of the worlds bi¦est tabloids. ‘Trans Kids are on the rise’ chimes one, another pops off with jargon about trans women encroaching on ‘women’s only spaces’. Meanwhile, we are sat at home, living our best lives, realising our cups of tea have gone lukewarm, and forgetting to hang the washing out. Being human. Being everyday. Being ourselves. Our narrative has been painted by brushes that aren’t just tarred, they’re no longer brushes, but this doesn’t stop them creating masterpieces that paint us into the enemy and something to be feared – much to the mainstream press’ applause. And as the trans and gender non-conforming community step out of their front door, and go about their day, they’re greeted with the after-affects of these lies. We are expected to answer to it. The behaviour towards us is legitimised by these stories, and it worries me how this isn’t something that these so called ‘award-winning’ journalists realise.

For me specifically, I am constantly so hard on myself – and in the most Bradshaw-esque way possible. I can’t help but wonder if this is because society’s judgements on my being and my body have made me that way. So many of us in the nonbinary community hold ourselves up to such high standards because of the ways we are taught to exist in the world. But we are enough in all that we do. Our work, our love lives, our aimless wandering down Oxford Street. Our identities are valid, no matter how they are expressed. We are enough. We are not here to just be tolerated and smiled at. We are here to be respected and revered. To be in positions of power and to be listened to in all that we do. To have our pronouns respected and not just treated as an afterthought. We aren’t new here, we have existed for centuries, and the colonisation of our identity has meant that trans and gender nonconforming people – specifically people of colour – are suddenly seen as an entity that has never been seen before. Little do they know of our rich, beautiful and ethereal history.

Speaking as yourself and for yourself is one of the most powerful things, as human beings, that we can do, and after years of being spoken for, the seven people adorning this cover and the subsequent interviews mark a turning point for the conversations around our identities. These people don’t only speak their truths, but they live them. Through their respective careers and work, they have dedicated themselves to forging a path through the turbulence, to create such beautiful and aspirational lives. Not only are our stru¦les universal, but our success and achievement is also just that. It gives me pure unadulterated joy to be able to share stories of power, poise and strength from these amazing people. It’s rare that we get to control our own narrative, and for the whole project, from the shoot to the interviews, to be created and formed by gender non-conforming and non-binary people, it’s a strong statement to the masses as to how we should be discussed and profiled.

Something I have encountered as I stepped off the education train has been the pure lack of intelligence outlets have towards us. Me. You. All of the LGBTQ community, but especially trans and gender non-conforming people, and even more-so trans and gender non-conforming people of colour. Our stories fit for a few weeks of the year, but apart from that, we are not the conversation that they need to be having, or the minority that they want to take pity on. My career is only just beginning, but even I knew from day one that we have to be the people who set our own barometers of success. We can only see our own stru¦les and barriers, and only we know how to overcome them. Our spirit is so strong that we become our own bosses. Our own business owners. Our own CEO’s. Our own idols – and that’s so important when it comes to living as your truest self in this world as a gender nonconforming person. We’ve had enough of the empty dreams and ‘this isn’t right for us at the moment’ replies. We are the ones that have, for a very long time, held the tools that can propel us to our own success, and it’s time we stopped waiting for cis people to give us the greenlight, and walk over them to the finish line to create our own beautiful vision of what we want the world to be.