The importance of finding community

TRANSCRIPT

R: Well, first [pause] after I sort of discovered [pause] my desires, and, and, longings and I’ve… - then I was looking for groups to find, to meet women, and I found the first one I found because I was in Elland at the time, was the Huddersfield Games Group for Women. So that welcomes trans, bi, and, and lesbians... yeah. Anyone female, in, inside LGBT, and the, the meeting on a Friday night was pizza and games and... yeah, drinks, so. That was really fun way to, to meet people, and I think I, I made friends with people in that group, and, and then they told me that ,‘this is a, this is a diversion from the Leeds group’, or like a, a spring-off the Leeds group... So with time, I, I tried out the Leeds social, and they were, they were just meeting for drinks. No games or anything fun [laughs] So I didn’t, I didn’t go all the time to Leeds cos it was a longer journey but... they, they didn’t do anything other than sit and talk and drink, and, and I can find that scary a bit, or when I go a new place, like, and I don’t know anyone [laughs]. But I did go on my own. And then I just –

Interviewer: What was it like, the first time you went to the Huddersfield group?

R: Erm... it was really good fun, it was like... we, we were actually lucky that night, there was, there were at least three new people in the group. So you didn’t feel like, ‘oh my God, what am I doing here?!’ [laughs] They were really friendly and welcoming and... and we all chatted and we had pizza, food, and... yeah, and played some fun games so it was – I knew that... yeah, I wanted to stay there and go back to it. So even after moving away from that area... I still go there and I still have – I’m still – I still have good friendships with them.