Lifting spirits together with Spirit Level

LIFE Lifting spirits with Lifting spirits with Spirit Level Spirit Level By AIDAN CRISP

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Aself-help group for Liverpool’s LGBT community has been maintaining its support activities despite the pandemic.

The ‘Spirit Level Transgender Support Group’ provides help for people with gender identity issues, and has continued to do so throughout the past year

The support group, which has existed for more than 10 years, usually has face to face meetings where trans people from Liverpool can come and seek advice. However, due to the pandemic, the meetings have been conducted over Zoom since March last year.

Steph, who asked for her full name to be withheld to protect her privacy, has been chair of the group for two years, and said: “We still have meetings twice a month, so we’ve maintained the usual meetings schedule that we would’ve had prior to the pandemic.”

The group has faced a loss of attendees, as many members are unable to join the meetings due to living in a household where their families aren’t aware of them being transgender.

She added: “There are a number of trans people who are not able to attend the Zoom meetings, because of their cirumstances at home.

“It’s frustrating, we can’t help them. They would normally come along to a meeting and be themselves, talk about themselves, but they clearly can’t, particularly if they haven’t come out to family.

“We had a meeting last night where we had 10 people there.

“A number of the members are quite shy about going online for various reasons. When we normally have our face-to-face meetings, we can have up to twice that number.”

Steph hopes that the meetings can return to normal this summer.

Other ways that the group has been offering help is through a Messenger service, where people can contact the group and talk to somebody about their problems.

Another issue that the group has faced due to COVID-19 is the cancellation of Liverpool Pride.

Steph said: What we’ve normally done in the past, is we usually go on the march or meet up with one of the other charities and march with them.

The group would also have an information table in one of the event marquees.

Miss Gray addressed transphobia in Liverpool. She said: “I would say that it’s less common in Liverpool, Liverpool society does tend to be more tolerant.

“Whether that’s because Liverpool is a much more open city and is quite cosmopolitan in many ways (I’m not sure). We’ve always had issues with everyone else, so I think we can be a bit protective about people in our community, whether they be gay, straight or trans.

“When I came out as trans, where I used to drink, I had no issues whatsoever with the regulars in there. If anyone did come in who started to give me abuse, others would jump in and say ‘Get out the door’.”

Wax a student to do?

By RYAN WYKES

Graduating in a year of economic strife and uncertainty was not easy for the class of 2020, but former Liverpool student Amy Hones turned it to her advantage by deciding to pursue a burning desire to start her own business and launch her own range of scented candles.

Amy, 22, said: “Coming out of university in the middle of a global pandemic, my employment options were extremely narrow. This was especially bad because I studied in the area of film and at the time there was nothing going on in Liverpool that would have matched what I’ve learnt.

“It was a really scary time because as a foreign student, I had no ‘safety net’ to fall back into if I couldn’t make the money, I needed to pay the rent.”

Her first career choice was to freelance as a video editor, however a lack of businesses looking to invest in promotional video content left her in a difficult situation, so she chose to work with another one of her passions.

“The idea was to make some money as a second income source and, also, I simply wanted to do something I enjoy. I love video production, it’s really what I want to do all my life, but I also love being creative and my background in selling perfumes and fragranced products set me up to have a decent knowledge base of scents.”

Three years of experience in Europe’s largest “Lush” store in Liverpool had given her a wealth of knowledge and skills that she was able to put into her latest venture.

“There’s no plastic, no fancy labels or large boxes. The candles are wrapped using recycled paper and I try to buy natural waxes instead of common mineral-oil based ones. “

The candles are also intended to help alleviate everyday stresses.

“There’s this idea that your olfactive sense, so the sense of smell, can capture memories and moments in your life extremely well.

“Some people say their favourite smell for example is freshly cut grass and it may conjure up the memory of playing outside in the summer as a kid.

“Some people need nothing more but to smell an old book and instantly remember what it feels like to walk through a quiet library searching for a good book.

“That’s the idea of the candles. You’re supposed to be able to bring the positive memory back into your own home by lighting it and I think we all need a little extra positivity right now. In times like this we can often count on remembering the good times, to get us through.”

Candle business owner Amy Hones