It can feel daunting being first non-binary firefighter
WORKER ‘GRATEFUL’ TO COLLEAGUES
WEST Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service’s first non-binary firefighter has spoken out about discovering their identity and how colleagues have be supportive.
On International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (Wednesday, May 17), Tay Stevenson shared their story to realising they are non-binary.
Tay recently joined West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service, and says their new colleagues have been helping them settle in and keen to use the correct pronouns.
Tay, 37, said: “While growing up I always felt like I didn’t fit into the stereotypical male gender, mentally it just doesn’t match who I am, but neither did the female. I put this intrinsic feeling of not matching to one side and I got on with life.
“Then I met my partner and we fell in love – she was the first person who really accepted me because she was the only one I had talked to about how I felt regarding my disconnection to male/ female genders. We didn’t fully understand what I was, but we loved each other and were very happy.”
When Tay, now based at Halifax fire station, was filling out a job application form, they came across the phrase nonbinary.
“A bit of research into the term and I realised that “non-binary” is exactly what I am – what I always have been,” Tay said. “And that I wasn’t wrong, it wasn’t that I didn’t fit, but the male and female terms didn’t fit me.
“This was so important to me, and such a relief.”
West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue said it is encouraging employees to share pronouns proactively to make it easier for transgender and non-binary colleagues to share theirs.
Tay said: “Non-binary has only come into public gender terminology relatively recently – even though non-binary people have always existed, and as the first non-binary person in WYFRS it can be slightly daunting to be honest.
“Take for example my first night shift when on a detached duty to Huddersfield. First time at a two-pump station, lots of people and feeling a little apprehensive. However, by the second time at Huddersfield, “they” and “them” were being used – even though I hadn’t got around to talking about myself.
“I just remember feeling grateful, and a little guilty that I had not shared how I prefer to be addressed with them before.”