It's been a long month! It's also been quite a while since I've written something here (half a year!) and a lot's been going on, both personally and in the world of activism. So - where to begin about what's been happening recently?

Since I've moved to Leeds, I've gotten involved with a local group: Litter Free Leeds. They are a grassroots group here in Leeds whose aim is to "bring communities, groups and individuals together to be good role models of what can be achieved when we all work together to keep our roads, pavements, parks and green spaces clean and litter free."

Over the last few months, I've been getting more involved with community litter picking. Whether it's taking an hour out of my weekend to clear up areas around me, or as part of a group pick with the local Green Party, I've been doing my part to help #KeepLeedsTidy! No, it's not the most 'sexy' types of community activism, but it's certainly a type that matters.

Now that we're in the summer-y months of the year, it's gala and festival season! Specifically, I had the pleasure of volunteering for Hunslet Gala and Beeston Festival in June. These were really fun days for all involved, and the organisers deserve a lot of praise! They did a great job organising and running what were fabulous days.

With our Green stall, we held some community competitions: keepy-uppys, paper aeroplanes, jokes, and paper towers - all using recycled materials from the local elections campaign! These were really fun to run, and it was great seeing both adults and kids getting involved (and throwing paper aeroplanes enormous distances!)

On top of attending, I also visited various stalls and got to know some of the groups in our community more. In particular, I was thrilled to see so many climate action groups - even a youth group - along with groups such as ACORN, the housing union. It's great to see lots of climate awareness in Leeds, but also groups pushing the council to do better with housing; ACORN Leeds' proposal is to double the council tax on second houses, raising £3mil to help families "get the housing they need".

More recently, I wrote an article for South Leeds Life explaining my concerns over plastic grass pitches at the proposed Holbeck Sports Hub. You can read the article using the tagged link, but to summarise: the proposal includes three full-sized 3G pitches made out of plastic grass.

Plastic grass is super unfriendly to the environment; whilst I can totally understand the reasons for using artificial turf (it gets lots of mileage for its use & overcomes issues of waterlogging and cancelled games in the winter), there are still issues that remain unaddressed: overheating in hot weather (when 40 degree heat summers are the norm for the future, this grass will get extremely hot!), and there are also concerns related to forms of pollution owed to micro plastics.

At the moment, I will continue to work within my local community on this to ensure residents' voices are heard. There are many fellow residents of mine who have similar concerns! I think the idea of a community hub such as this, with a cafe and games area, will be a fabulous contribution for Holbeck residents; we need to ensure it is sustainable for the environment though.

Back in May 2022, I attended the protest against transphobia in York. The protest was against an event with a speaker who I won't name, simply because I don't need to be doxxed by their followers (who seem to search their name because.. they have nothing better to do?).

I've found with my blog posts I tend to use 'feature' images of my own that help to articulate the points I'm making from my experiences as a campaigner and, in some cases, my own personal experiences. This image comes from a day where 200 people turned out to protest transphobia on their campus, their home, on a day where someone who has written inflammatory articles about trans people and doxxed those who dare to oppose hate.

I spoke at this event for two reasons. Firstly, having been the LGBTQ+ Officer for the past two years at Uni of York (and having helped with organising a protest before my tenure ended), I wanted to help make it clear that there will always be voices in large numbers against transphobia. But, I also wanted to use the chance to remind my fellow trans siblings of three things: that they are valid, they are loved, and they are welcome at York. Most importantly though, this was an event to hold transphobia to account and call out hate for what it is.

​I've found many times that people being held account for transphobia is thrown under the umbrella term of "cancel culture". This speaker, for instance, had their event cancelled initially not because of their so-called 'gender critical' views (which aren't a thing - it's called transphobic views!) but because the society hosting them couldn't be bothered to fill out a risk assessment, or declare that the speaker in question was what the Students' Union would deem controversial. That was the reason for the cancellation, not "cancel culture". For the event to go ahead, the union and University had to be assured that there would be no damage done by it (spoiler alert: there was significant damage). Yet, of course, this was the narrative pushed in the media with no chance for a right of reply or correction to the record from those us, who were organising the demonstrations and raising awareness of the problems at hand.

More recently, I've seen - within the Green Party - individuals with transphobic views also being held to account, be it no-fault suspensions from the party or having their spokesperson privileges removed. In those instances, the hateful rhetoric has contravened code of conduct, such as RR530 in the Green Party's Responsibilities and Rights, where it states "We shall respect transgender and non-binary people's identities as real". But this isn't a post about the Green Party, or certain Daily Mail journalists. It's about accountability, and why it matters when dealing with transphobia.

The point I'm trying to make here is this: if people are to trust either individuals or groups on their commitment to trans rights, they must be shown that with actions. These actions will do more than empty rhetoric and sharing social media graphics on days of significance; they will show that someone is willing to put their money where their mouth is and take a stance. This applies everywhere. If transphobic language is being used by someone who is straight or cis, their 'allyship' is hollow if they can't see the damage of their words. If a workplace discriminates against an employee for being trans, that company has no place to claim it is inclusive at all. If an organisation allows transphobia to fester with no action against perpetrators, it does not stand with LGBTQ+ people. If you can't hold transphobia to account with actions, then you're not a trans ally.

The above paragraph may seem like some sort of platitudes akin to "if you see something, say something" but there's a reason why they're important. I spoke of trust, and for so many trans people - myself included - there's very little trust that we're being considered at all. After I spoke at the protest, my brain immediately went from one mindset to another: it went from "I've worked with the university, I know they're on my side" to "The university just doesn't care about us". I felt for the first time that the place I'd studied at for three years just didn't care about me at all. After so many pleas from myself and my friends, who the elected representatives on behalf of LGBTQ+ people at the uni, they ignored us explaining how it would inevitably end and took no responsibility for what followed: my friends receiving death threats and massive reputational damage. It was crushing.

So, to round this up, accountability matters because if you can't hold others effectively to account, nobody will trust you. That trust will evaporate and all that will be left are hollow remarks, empty words, and meaningless 'solidarity'. After five people were murdered because hate against LGBTQ+ people was allowed to fester without accountability, it's not good enough.

Over the last few days, reading my social media timeline has been heartbreaking to say the least. Today has been overwhelmingly upsetting. I wanted to take a moment to reflect on everything that's happened over the last couple of days.

Please be advised this post contains references to death, murder, and transphobic rhetoric

Firstly, it was Trans Day of Remembrance yesterday - a day in the year where we mourn those lost to violence and transphobia. It's always a very sombre day and the figures of how many people we've lost are staggering. Therefore, it was difficult to see the day either being mocked or appropriated by transphobic accounts on social media. One in particular came from "Green Feminists UK", who felt it appropriate to claim that Trans Day of Remembrance 'is part of a communications campaign to take away women's rights to our own safe spaces'. They also tried to hijack the day, claiming it to be "Female Day of Remembrance", despite the fact that International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women occurs in just five days' time.

This was bad enough. But then, we all saw the devastating news about Club Q in Colorado - an LGBTQ+ club that came under attack by a shooter. Let's be clear - this was a calculated attack against our community. When organisations such as 'Libs of TikTok' use their platform to draw attention to events in queer safe spaces and demonise them, they incite hate and violence against us. But as if this wasn't crushing enough, we then had to see the vitriolic LGB Alliance completely erase people from our community.

The LGB Alliance are a hate group. That conclusion can be drawn clearly from the fact they claim it was LGB people who were attacked, yet a trans man - Daniel Aston - died at Club Q. Daniel was a bartender there, and once tweeted: "Every single goddamn time I even have the slightest thought of leaving Club Q, someone comes up and tells me "you're the reason I love this bar" or "you and Derrick make me feel so safe and welcome here". I've always believed in the power of queer safe spaces and I know how great they can be... but reading that the place that was supposed to be safe came under attack broke me.

​Rest in Power, Daniel.

I thought our world couldn't get worse. For a second time, I was wrong.

I don't care about football. I've never liked it, I don't see the point in it. Seeing everything about the Euros in 2021 was somewhat positive: that our national football team were taking the knee at the start of games, however I find the fact they can't protest against a country like Qatar by wearing an armband is pathetic. The threat of an instant yellow card came from FIFA and they abandoned any thought of wearing it. As I said - I don't care about football, but for many queer football fans this could've been a moment where they see that yes: LGBTQ+ people are in the thoughts of sporting icons, and they will protest against anti-LGBTQ+ countries such as Qatar. Alas, they won't even bother risking a yellow card for us.

​So how do I sum all of this up? I can only bring myself to say two things. One: the last few days have been shit. They've been so shit. We've had to deal with transphobic vitriol, an attack on all of our community, and the fact football players won't bother standing up for us. Two:

This is why we need Pride. 

Over the last few days, my notifications have been filled to the brim with comments after I shared the graphic at the top of this post. If you follow me on Twitter, you'll likely know what sort of comments. The reason I'm posting this is because I want to share personal reflections on the barrage I've gotten, and I feel I need to make a call out to any cis allies who read my posts.

Please be advised, this post has quotes containing hateful language I've received in tweets addressed to me.

Since I posted the above graphic, my tweet has had thousands of interactions on it. The majority of these, very likely, have come from some gender critical group chat with the aim of dog piling my comments section. I see all of these comments and they're like water off a duck's back to me, but there are some which I feel define the people who are criticising my post.

In the last few posts I've put up, I've been called a Nazi. I've been called a fascist. I've been called a "groomer", the exact same trope used against queer people in the 1980s. I've even had people talking about my genitals, which frankly is nobody's business. Those words and slurs don't hurt me (I guess it's quite alarming how normalised I am to this sort of hate) but it goes to show the mindset of those who have shown opposition. It's also incredibly distressing to me to see that members younger than myself - who are friends of mine - are facing the same level of hate, some of whom are struggling to deal with this level of interaction. I don't understand how someone could have hate in their heart to dox a 16 year old, but again - that says it all about those who are popping up in my notifications.

I've nothing more to say other than what I've already said in my posts, but I do have one more important thing to say to trans allies. We need you. Trans Awareness Week starts today and I'm going to be the first to say it's not enough to just repost a graphic about trans rights, or like a tweet from somebody you follow saying "Trans Rights Are Human Rights!". I'm sorry, but it's not good enough.

We need you supporting us, calling out transphobia in all its forms. We need you signing petitions to reform the Gender Recognition Act. We need you on the streets with us when we demonstrate. We need you to stand with us when we're facing this sort of vitriol and hate, because that's what allyship is. I remember hosting Jonathan Blake from LGSM when I ran the LGBTQ+ Network at York, and he was such an eloquent speaker. The whole point of LGSM was that queer people showed solidarity to mining communities because they were being marginalised in the same way they were back in the 1980s; eventually the NUM (National Union of Mineworkers) showed the same solidarity at the Labour Party conference and helped get the Labour Party to stand up for LGBTQ+ rights.

So if you're an ally to the trans community, then please actively stand with us. We're seeing history repeat itself with the hate targeted at the trans community and we're heading for another Section 28. It's terrifying, and we need you.

I’ve even had… the “pleasure” of being told, as a trans person (by a cis man!), that Labour is the lesser of two evils and that if I don’t support them, I’m enabling the Tories.

When I left the Labour Party back in 2020, it was because of two things. One of those was the replies I’d received for daring to suggest Laura Pidcock, newly elected to the NEC, was transphobic; this was on top of the absolute denial I’d had to endure when suggesting there was an issue with transphobia within the party. I have an image of the barrage of comments I received for simply saying there was a problem within the party, but I won’t share it. It’s too difficult to look at. But it reminds me that (at this point) when, not if, Labour do get into power soon, they’ll be no better than the people who came before them on trans rights.
 
It's clear that there is an endemic transphobia problem in politics, and this applies to all parties. No exceptions. As a member of the Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW) I was heartbroken to see that our Scottish counterparts have disaffiliated with us due to the transphobia problem we have. However, I remain hopeful in the knowledge that the leadership of the party have committed to doing better, that transphobic individuals have been either suspended or had privileges (such as being a spokesperson) stripped, and that our leaders are taking a personal, active interest in resolving the issue and meeting with trans members to discuss it further. Compare this to the action, or rather a lack thereof, of Labour and the Conservatives and it becomes clear they don’t care about the issue. This is particularly a problem within Labour because, as the party likely to be in government over the next few years, they’re going to let down so many people within the LGBTQ+ community. To see why this is, you must only look at the words and actions of their frontbench team.

Let’s start with their lead on equalities: Anneliese Dodds. On the one hand, she’s been very firm that Labour will make reforms to the Gender Recognition Act and she’s herself said that trans rights are human rights. Clearly, this is good… if it were backed up by substantial proof that these words would be matched by actions. Alas, Dodds has problematically disagreed with colleagues in the Labour Party (namely Stella Creasy) by, in an interview, seemed to reduce womanhood to genitalia. Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t one part of the feminist movement about moving away from reducing women to their reproductive organs?

​Then we have our would-be Health Secretary, Wes Streeting. He’s backed Rosie Duffield as well as JK Rowling, saying we must “empathise” with transphobic perspectives and that trans rights are part of a “debate”. Like his colleague Anneliese Dodds, he’s also reduced trans people to whether they have a penis or vagina. This would be the man in charge of reforms within the NHS, specifically – if Labour were to commit to better trans rights – the man who’d oversee reforming the criminally long waiting lists for gender clinic appointments. How are we meant to trust him to improve things in government when he barely supports trans people in opposition?

​And finally, we have our would-be Chancellor: Rachel Reeves. I’ve always expressed my dislike for Reeves based on her policies: out-Torying the Tories on benefits, using anti-migrant rhetoric, and barely any support for nationalisation at a time when it’s so desperately needed. Not only has Reeves has herself been vocal of her support for Rosie Duffield, she was also the person to defend Keir Starmer visiting the homophobic Jesus House, which he described as a “wonderful example” of a church. Not only has she shown her true colours on trans rights, she’s also seemingly defended our would-be Prime Minister visiting somewhere with a reputation of homophobia and conversion therapy.

​To sum it all up, I’m tired. I’m tired of trying to suggest it wouldn’t be much better if Labour got into power for me as a trans person, and all my trans siblings. I’m tired of pointing out the hypocrisy and gall that Labour have on significant days for the LGBTQ+ community in the calendar, when they post a graphic saying they support us but take no substantive action towards sorting out the issues in their own house. I’m tired of being told I’d rather have the monstrous Conservative Party in power because I don’t want Labour in power.

CW: This post discusses mental health, specifically OCD and depression.
This post took a lot of courage to write and, honestly? I'm still not sure if I've worded it properly. But... here goes :)

I have OCD, and I'm massively proud of the progress I've made so far. The image at the top of this post may seem like a normal selfie, but it's not. I took that photo after shaving, whilst wearing my glasses. Now, to anyone else, that would be completely trivial; to me, it's massive progress.
To give you an insight into my brain: the kind of OCD I have is the 'compulsion' side. It makes me believe that something I do, even if it's the tiniest thing, will make everything go wrong or make people upset. For example, when I was doing my GCSEs, my brain would tell me "if you write this essay using this certain pen, you'll get a low grade"; I believed this and often I'd only believe the grade I'd get was good because of the pen I wrote it in. I also feel compelled to say: a lot of this will sound ridiculous, but in my mind these were platitudes I had to follow religiously.

Connecting the dots to find out this was OCD took an incredibly long path. I've had this sort of mindset for a very long time, but I never stopped to think there was something causing it; my brain took the things I'd think about as actual causes-to-effects. There would be little things, and then there would be big things. Some of these included whether the bus I get comes before the same bus going the other way, whether I went through the left door into work or the right door, even the TV show I fall asleep to: it has to be Parks & Recreation otherwise tomorrow will be terrible. Again, as I type these, I'm telling myself "they all sound completely ridiculous to anyone else, but they make sense to me".

A lot of the time I've heard people say they, like Arlene Philips jokingly did last year, that they "have OCD because they like things to be clean and tidy". OCD is far more than that, and it's not much of a laughing matter. I debated with myself whether to include this or not, but I feel this illustrates why I don't find those sorts of remarks funny. Because of my OCD, I'd often avoid doing incredibly necessary things such as washing my bed sheets or wearing clean clothes. Why? My fear was that wearing something different or sleeping in a bed with different sheets would make things worse, all whilst feeling depressed because I can't bring myself to do something as simple as putting things in a washing machine.

It's only recently that I started to look into what it could be, and the reason is because my compulsions started to affect things I have to do to function on a daily basis. When I started thinking "taking my anti-depression medication is making things worse around me", it felt like a trap I couldn't get out of: either take my antidepressant and fear that it's making things worse around me, or don't take it and risk the side effects of not keeping up to date with my medication. I can honestly describe that situation as hell. When it also came to wearing my glasses my brain would think even touching them would cause bad things around me, so instead of wearing them and being able to see clearer I'd just have to put up with it... at least it's not anything that would obviously be worse, right?
​
So when I say that photo is massive progress, it's because two months ago I'd have been massively anxious to shave or wear my glasses because, combined, they'd make everything spiral out of control around me. I feel really embarrassed saying that because of how ridiculous it sounds, but I'm glad to now be on the right track.

Today marks the beginning of Pride Month, which means it’s the beginning of my entire social media feed becomes emblazoned with rainbows, #LoveIsLove tweets, and so many different companies I follow talking of how they stand with the LGBTQ+ community. Of course, this is just the onslaught of rainbow capitalism, and for a couple of years I have shared a post sent to me by a good friend from back home (shown below).

Content warning: the following post discusses queerphobia, transphobia, and quotes queerphobic/transphobic rhetoric.

​Back in September, I had the privilege of speaking at and helping organise the Gender Revolution demonstration here in York. This was a demonstration that took to the streets and made clear the failings of the Gender Recognition Act (2004), in particular for non-binary people.

I specifically remember at this time that there had been a cabinet reshuffle, which resulted in Liz Truss being made Foreign Secretary and Kemi Badenoch a Minister for Equalities. Their track records speak for themselves: Badenoch had been caught on camera referring to trans women as â€œmen” and dismissed trans rights activism saying "what are transsexuals looking for"; Truss' tenure as an equalities minister has involved her disbanding an LGBT panel due to "fundamental disagreements" between herself and the panel, over self-ID. As I said at the time: this government cannot ever say they stand with us as  the LGBTQ+ community whilst their ministers actively stand against us.

The reason I'm recalling this demo from last year is because I remember the massive amounts of support from the public. Sadly, not everyone agreed with our reason for protesting, but that's to be expected and thankfully nobody was assaulted or felt unsafe. I spoke to many individuals who were unaware of the issues with the GRA; they left the conversation more aware of the problems and knew what needed to be done to rectify them. It was also so refreshing to be cheered along and applauded during our march around the city, chanting "trans rights now!". I went home with a brilliant, hopeful feeling: that we will soon see progress for the LGBTQ+ community.

Today I, along with many others on social media, read that we have our very first trans MP - Jamie Wallis - in the House of Commons. A historic moment for LGBTQ+ political representation. Wallis' tweet was incredibly brave, and initially seeing the amount of support come in for him briefly relit the feeling from many months ago that things are beginning to get better.

However, the way our media have acted, and the reaction of politicians to Wallis' statement, has led me to feel the exact opposite of what I felt back in September. Our mainstream media for the past week has instead of focusing on the pressing issues that matter - such as the cost of living crisis, or Ukraine being invaded - been asking politicians about genitals.

One incident of this happening occurred with Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting, where he responded "men have penises, women have vaginas". He then went on to say that "trans rights should be debated in a "respectful" way". Not only a few minutes later, he reached out to Jamie Wallis sending "love and solidarity", applauding Wallis as "hugely courageous". There wasn't even 20 minutes between his comments on talkRADIO, suggesting the rights of trans individuals are up for debate, and his tweet sending so-called 'love'. This is our would-be Health Secretary, arguably showing very clearly he would be no better than his predecessor (who himself has been called out for his comments) on supporting trans people.

I find it baffling how so many politicians will call human rights a 'debate', and in the other send 'solidarity and support'. Trans rights are certainly not a 'debate'. A debate is whether pineapple goes on pizza, or whether there are more doors or wheels in the world, not whether somebody deserves human rights. The most infuriating example of this, for me, must be the response from the Prime Minister where he said to Wallis that "The Conservative Party I lead will always give you, and everyone else, the love and support you need to be yourself", whilst making jokes about Keir Starmer's recent comments: â€œGood evening, ladies and gentleman, or as (Labour leader Sir) Keir Starmer would put it, people who are assigned female or male at birth.”

Johnson is in charge of this country; he's the Prime Minister. If he really means what he says (which, let's be honest, there is a 0% chance of!) he wouldn't have his equality ministers be open transphobes, nor would he make such awful comments. Alas it's no surprise that the man who has made inflammatory comments (namely 'tank-topped bum boys') also makes such remarks about the trans community.

This is something I've been feeling for a long time now. That feeling of "things will get better" from September has slowly been dying down, to the point where I struggle to believe we'll ever see an improvement. One tweet that caught my eye earlier today was one sharing a BBC News article from 2009, almost parallel to the sort of articles we see nowadays:

It's hard to believe that less than a quarter of a decade ago, these were the sort of articles being published.

The bottom line here, though, is that I'm clinging onto this flicker of hope that things will improve. It may take a long time, but I'm holding onto that hope and pray that one day, the term "trans row" will be a thing of the past; that transphobic politicians will be held accountable for their actions; that we'll see proper reform to the Gender Recognition Act. I remain hopeful.

So if you've been following my social media, you'll probably know that over the last couple of weeks I ran to be York's next Community and Wellbeing Officer. I sadly didn't win, but honestly? I had such a fun two weeks and an overall fabulous time! I may not have won, but I definitely pushed myself out of my comfort zone and I'll always be proud of that.

I wanted to use this blog post as an opportunity to recall the fantastic things I managed to achieve during my campaign. Doing this sort of stuff is a joy of mine, and I genuinely love going out and about campaigning with a positive message. So, without further ado, what did I do in two weeks?

Day 1: Online canvassing begins
At 9am candidates were announced, although we couldn't officially campaign until midday. I started by sharing my positive vision and what I wanted to do!

Day 2: Interviews and chatting candidly
Instagram account decided to break (oof) so I had to make a new one. Later that evening, I then went to one of the campus bars for an official campaigning events - 'Candid Chats'! Honestly, I had a wonderful time meeting so many people and I really enjoyed it.

I also had my interview, which I don't think could have gone any better. I said everything I wanted to say with confidence, I had all my figures right (and cited!), and had an all-round lovely chat with my interviewer.

Day 4: Debate Night
I've always loved debating, but honestly? Because I really admire and get on well with the person I was up against - Hannah - this felt more live a civilised chat about the issues at hand, rather than a full-on debate. Again, I said everything I wanted to say, and I spoke passionately about the issues that matter to me & what I want resolved.

I also decided to treat myself that night with a trip to Timewarp, the on-campus club night. Had a fab time and even bumped into a couple of other candidates, who I'd later go on to canvass with in a few days' time!

Day 5: Postering all over the place
Not the official start of the physical campaign period, but I made the brave journey to trek in the rain and wind to stick some posters up. Probably the low point of the campaign considering a car managed to completely soak me on the way back home :(​

Day 9: The last push
Day 8 was pretty much analogous to Day 7, but Day 9 was my last push. I went to the newest college, Anne Lister, and spoke to a lot of students who had been sent to Hull instead of being given on-campus accommodation. I still can't believe this happened, and I did apologise for repeating what a lot of these folks had probably heard 10x before.

However, highlight of this day had to be the people who told me "you're the first person I've actually seen come here that's spoken to us, and not just put posters up. I really appreciate that". I likely won't have been the only person to go to that area and canvass, but it was really touching to know that me - going way out of my comfort zone and approaching people on my own - was appreciated.


So, in summary, I didn't win the election... but I achieved my goal: get out of my comfort zone and push myself. I've never campaigned in person on my own before, especially not in a campaign that's mainly about myself. It certainly was a lot more nerve wracking to do all of this compared to speaking at a demo of over 1,000 people in a crowd. Most importantly, though, I'm proud of everything I achieved. I'm proud of coming out of my shell more, I'm proud to have spoken about things that matter to me, and I'm proud that I did everything I wanted to do. 

The final results were 962-950, which I am also massively proud of. To have gone that far out of my comfort zone to then reach nearly exactly half of the student vote is a massive achievement in my eyes, and I'll always be proud of achieving that. 

"People power" is such an important phrase to me; it's one of the reasons I got involved in campaigning from such a young age. Recently I've seen many demonstrations for campaigns take place, even during the COVID-19 pandemic! However, the main one I'd like to talk about in my first post is the Save Our Libraries Essex (SOLE) campaign.

I got involved in SOLE thanks to an amazing campaigner - who worked at my school & sixth form - Andy. At the time I was Head Boy at my sixth form, and Andy offered me the chance to speak at a demonstration for SOLE on a platform that students need libraries as educational resources and study spaces. Of course, this is something I remain passionate about! Walking past the library during the dreaded 'exam season' was a massive testament to the importance of libraries - tables were adorned with revision notes, study guides, textbooks. This was a resource, for my peers, I wanted to fight for.

Previously, I had seen demonstrations for other local campaigns (run by Andy, too!): Defend Our NHS, Homelessness is not a Crime. These demonstrations made people's voices heard, and sent a clear message to the local authorities that people did not agree with the plans for merging three hospitals and £100 fines to those sleeping rough respectively. I remember turning up to the demonstration early and watching the crowd grow bigger and bigger, showing just how many people cared about this vital service.

According to local news sources, this was expected to be one of the biggest protests (at the time) Essex had seen. The photo in the banner for this post shows just how many people turned out to show their support for libraries. I vividly remember speaking into that microphone back in February 2019, saying that students stand against the plans to take away such a valuable resource. This photo is one I always refer back to when thinking about how effective "people power" is because, as a result of our demonstrations, the council U-turned on their decision. By using our voices, we managed to reverse a decision made by authorities.

SOLE has been an incredible experience for me as it has shown me the effects of people power. This is still an ongoing battle, even now with Debden Library at risk from being taken over by New City College, but I know that with enough people making noise about issues that matter, we can tackle injustices and reverse decisions that will marginalise others. For now, I can look back on the work of these campaigns and know that major differences have been made, and can be made again, by standing up and using my voice.