"We need to lock them up and fix them or make them go away."
Trans-women are women. ALL: Trans-women are women.
Trans-men are men. ALL: Trans-men are men.
CROWD APPLAUDS
Hello, good people. Hello!
Hi, I'm Fox. And I'm Owl.
And we're both trans-activists.
And I define as non-binary. And I define as non-binary too. Yes!
I'm neither a man or a woman.
I don't want to fit into the narrow expectations of what it is to be a man.
Was that sexy?!
It's about more than just denouncing gender stereotypes,
because it is in itself an identity.
It's about learning to celebrate and accept yourself outside of the binary.
And it's about defiance.
Come on then, let's go!
I love the activism that we do.
And it's so nice to have Owl with me as my partner in crime.
I think we're here.
..people will take that away with them.
The films that we make I kind of want people to be like,
"Well, so they're trans - so what?"
That is the time to really stand up. When somebody says something...
We've been doing activism for a very long time.
It always seems to move very slowly though,
so it's always a bit frustrating.
But it is really important to have those conversations.
Across the board, from education to, erm, business...
I mean, trans people are still facing serious issues
when it comes down to education, to the workplace.
You know, there's really high suicide rates.
Trans people are still being violently attacked.
I never actually set out to be an activist but I realised
that I was coming out to a world that didn't know anything about being trans.
So I sort of had to carve my own way in the media
and just start speaking up about these things because no-one else was doing it.
The media is full of rubbish about trans people. Yeah.
So, we do this thing because we have to.
Just in the car heading off to Totnes Pride today.
So, we just arrived at Totnes, eh, for a sound check for our speech.
We're wearing our glitzy, glitzy outfits for Pride. Woohoo!
But Pride is a protest, still.
So, yeah, we're also not here just to have a great time,
but also to raise awareness of things that are important to raise awareness of.
Our little nephew, Henry, looking very cute.
The first Pride for Henry. Woohoo!
We're going to be giving a speech, a very rousing trans-related speech,
about 11 o'clock. And then the march is going to head off at 11.30.
The reason why it's important for trans people to be visible at Pride
is because there has been a lot of rise in transphobia recently in the UK.
Trans rights are human rights.
CROWD: Trans rights are human rights.
Non-binary is valid. CROWD: Non-binary is valid.
Yeah!
FOX LAUGHS Yeah!
APPLAUSE AND CHEERING
These types of events create a space where people can be themselves without judgment.
And for many, it's a highlight of their year.
So, what are you proud of, Owl?
I am proud of a lot of things. I am proud of trans people
for being a great and an amazing community
that is rising up against a lot of hardship right now.
And I think we're coming together and we are mobilising other people
in the community as well. There is a lot of strength in that, I feel.
Just heading back to Brighton.
And it's going to be about a five, six-hour trip.
Tomorrow we're off to London for three appointments. Yay!
And then Tuesday we're in London as well.
And Friday we're in London too.
We often have really, really long days and we do a lot of
meetings and stuff and we travel a lot to London, for example.
It just feels like there's always more work to be done.
There's admin to do, there's people to respond to.
There's nasty messages from various social media that I have to deal with and block and delete.
As an example of some of the hate messages we get online,
this is just one that I woke up to today that says...
"Gender dysphoria is all this is. They are literally insane.
"People don't need to pander to the crazy.
"We need to lock them up and fix them or make them go away.
"This is just bad parenting and insanity. Nothing else to it."
If I wasn't a trans activist I would be a screen printer just making art.
And I miss that as well sometimes.
So this is the fourth or fifth meeting that we've had this year
talking about non-binary trans issues.
All off the record, all on our own time and dime.
Erm, but this is true activism, I suppose,
where hopefully it'll all pay off.
Being able to access policy makers and help them understand
the importance of trans rights is probably one of the most important things in activism.
Who's getting married?
Yay, good for them!
Oh, hi there. What's going on?
You know, just waiting for a train to go back to Brighton.
Trans activists are often sharing very personal things and we have
to be incredibly vulnerable and at the same time we have
to be able to, you know, get our points across.
And it's actually quite exhausting sometimes.
For example, after today we feel pooped - quite tired, actually. Yeah!
When we get home, just being able to sit down and breathe and relax,
and just being able to cook some food really helps me sort of wind down and reflect on the day.
I feel like we've achieved so much through activism over the years.
People reach out to us so many times and say that it's actually
making a difference to them and it inspires them.
So, that's when you know that it's working and the hard work matters.