Although the Equality Act 2010 and the Sex Discrimination (Northern Ireland) Order 1976, amended in 1999, states that transgender or gay people are protected against harassment or discrimination in schools or at the workplace and need to be treated equally, things don’t normally happen that way. Sadly, they still face discrimination every day. Yet, understanding the LGBT community is a thing we all should be able to do. Luckily, Inter-LGBT—an association which aims to cover all of the needs of the LGBT community—is here to guide us throughout this issue.
Founded more than 20 years ago, the French NGO keeps working on finding interactive ways to combat discrimination against transgender and gay people. The organization’s three main objectives are to provide help to members of the community, to advocate for institutional advances, and to challenge civil society.
Currently, Inter-LGBT’s focus is directed towards young transgender community. Just like adult trans community, the young one still has to face discrimination. Besides that, its members feel persecuted almost all the time. According to the NGO, this is a community that suffers from the most verbal and physical abuse, including fatalities. Sadly, 85% of trans persons will suffer abuse throughout their lives.
To make people be more conscious about the ‘languishing’ group, the association cooperated with creative agency TBWA/Paris—Dan Paris and Wanda Paris—and decided to craft a short video titled “Je t’aime ma fille” (“Love you, my girl”). The ad tries to best describe how such youngsters feel because others don’t understand them. It was produced by Wanda Paris, with post-production carried out by TBWA\Else. “Love you, my girl” employs emotions and feelings as a way to catch the audience’s attention and inform the general public about this kind project.
The campaign portrays the relationship between a father and his transgender daughter. In the film, we get to see the parent ‘training’ and even mistreating his own teenage kid. Why does he do it when she is already facing major challenges that are in school? Just check the heartbreaking video at the end of this article!
The goal of the ad is to raise public awareness, aiming to deliver more support to transgender boys/girls, no matter if they are kids, teenagers, or adults. Without any support, these youngsters will find it very difficult to overcome life’s challenges, especially abuse – including the risks of becoming a victim at school.
The disturbing film guides viewers down a false track so that the spot’s final scenes bring an even greater impact upon them. Spoilers! It comes with a nice twist that shows shocking information alongside the encouraging message to support transgender people. Moreover, the video proves out to be a good educational platform for parents and relatives of young trans kids, but also a suitable digital platform for anyone interested in the plight.
The initiative is supported by an online portal, supporttranspeople.com, design of which allows users to smoothly navigate and browse with ease, while providing a great amount of information on how to be more understanding with ‘transgenders’. The website lets parents, relatives, and even friends discover how to support and help trans youngsters overcome the difficulties they face through a series of testimonials. Plus, the site hosts key statistics in a very dynamic way, pieces of advice, and addresses a series of reminders of the fundamental rights of trans persons.
Inter-LGBT also calls for politicians and relatives to get involved in this movement and start helping trans people get their protection. Plus, you can also join the initiative by sharing it on social media platforms using the #SupportTransPeople hashtag. So, it now comes down to you: will you help trans people regain their dignity?