Art of raising awareness...
SHOPPING palace Afflecks found a creative way to celebrate Transgender Day of Visibility.
Kaitlynn Simmons and Elijah Van Rijswijk, who work at the city centre emporium and are both transgender, were commissioned to design a T-shirt and a mural to mark the day.
The International Transgender Day of Visibility (TDoV) is an annual holiday celebrated around the world.
It is dedicated to celebrating the accomplishments and victories of transgender and gender non-conforming people, while raising awareness of the work needed to support them. It was founded in 2009 in reaction to the lack of LGBT holidays celebrating transgender people’s successes.
Afflecks commissioned Elijah, 22, who works in Ginger’s Comfort Emporium, to create a piece of art to capture the message of the day, for the internal walls.
Kaitlynn, 18, who works at Creative Space on the third floor, designed a T-shirt. Her design features a bee in the colours of the transgender pride flag – pink, blue and white. Afflecks covered the cost of designing and printing the T-shirts and the proceeds sale will go to the TDoV charity.
The aim of the day is to show support for the trans community.
It hopes focus on the accomplishments of trans people around the world, fighting cissexism [prejudice or discrimination against transgender people] and transphobia by spreading knowledge.
Afflecks is strong supporter of the trans community and is a third party hate crime reporting centre.
Anyone who experiences a hate crime, but isn’t comfortable with speaking to the police can report it via Afflecks. General manager Tony Martin said: “At Afflecks we see ourselves as a small community that work together in trying to spread the message that not everybody is the same and should be accepted by society no matter what. It is great to have a permanent piece of art on the wall that will help raise awareness of the trans community and their fight against cissexism. By working closely with GMP we aim to combat hate-related crime against anyone.”