Salford’s trans community is in mourning following the tragic death of Brianna Ghey who was found in a park in Warrington.
And coinciding with LGBT+ history month they have echoed the need for trans lives to be protected.
The history month is arguably more significant than ever, with vigils being held in remembrance of the 16-year-old and the incident is being investigated by police.
Salford-based charity Mind runs an LGBTQ+ project – ‘Rainbow Mind’, which is a pivotal LGBT mental health service which runs UK wide courses and support.
CEO of Mind in Salford and clinical lead for Rainbow Mind, Markus Greenwood, said: “It feels like the trans rights are the new frontier in terms of LGBTQ+ rights.
“We hear the stories that our trans service users tell us on a daily basis of how it hard it is for them, and how much prejudice and discrimination and ignorance there is.
“I think it’s a really pivotal time that we need to be developing services and campaigns and raising money to kind of fight that fight.”
The Mind LGBT+ project have found they have seen more trans clients and people in transition use their services.
They centre their services around compassion, from their therapists, group leaders and course leaders and support trans clients to ultimately be more compassionate with themselves.
The service has been running for four years and was set up with the aim improve the underlying issues with mental health in the LGBT community.
The charity has found that members of the LGBT community are more likely to have depression and anxiety issues around substances and self-harm. Rainbow Mind are combatting this by having open discussions and interventions so people can come and get support.
Trans groups and Rainbow Mind, alongside many other charities nationwide have been reacting to the recent loss of transgender student, Brianna Ghey. They have echoed the need to change the internalised homophobia in society and moreover the internalised shame of LGBT+ members.
A petition is set to be named after Brianna, if passed it will amend the pre-existing Gender Recognition Act to allow for people to apply for a reissued death certificate, even with no Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC).
For further support and guidance on how to get involved with Rainbow Minds, visit their website and for information on the GRC amendment petition visit here.