In summer 2025, as part of a project funded by LGBT+ Consortium’s Equity Fund, we at The Kite Trust have explored what it means to embed and practice trans-centred leadership in an LGBTQ+ organisation. This was undertaken in conversations with trans, non-binary, gender diverse and gender questioning staff and young people who use our services. The below is the product of our discussions. 

In February 2025, 91% of survey respondents identified as falling under the trans, non-binary, gender diverse and gender questioning umbrella. The Kite Trust is now serving a different demographic than in the past. Trans young people are taking up space, using their voices, and becoming leaders through our spaces such as advocacy workshops and youth panels.  

Our experience of trans-ness is fluid and one’s comfort with something day to day might vary between situations. An intersectional understanding of our identities is crucial, making sure thought is given to the impacts and relations between other parts of our identities and centring those often marginalised in multiple ways. The language we use has and will change over time too. We should make spaces for trans young people to speak for themselves, and amplify those perspectives when individuals don’t feel able to do so for themselves. Often even staff might feel that they are not ‘trans enough’ or ‘gender diverse enough’ and these narratives need to be constantly challenged to ensure our whole community feels self-worth and belonging.  

It is important to acknowledge that trans people aren’t following normative frameworks of youth. The journey to understanding and accepting a trans identity can be longer, and sometimes more challenging, than exploration of sexual orientation. Maintaining our age range for service users up to 30 is vital, and there is scope to think about how we better integrate with support after that, bearing in mind the length of such journeys.  

Staff and volunteers, as well as young people, come to The Kite Trust and find it a space to explore gender. We should remain a welcoming space for staff members to change and try new gender expression at work. Our ‘Trans Equity Policy’ is important to ensure staff are supported to get adequate rest around surgeries and other medical procedures, and that policy has flexibility as it cannot be a one size approach.  

Individuals’ visibility as trans internally and externally can be different and there is often a lot of nuance in that depending on different circumstances. We must navigate that nuance to not create a new binary of what it means to be ‘out’. Individual’s confidentiality, consent and control over what is shared must be at the heart of our actions. The risks of visibility must be assessed every time and this is exhausting for individual trans members of staff who feel they are always ‘presenting’ themselves at work. When staff and volunteers are supported appropriately, work can be a valuable and safe space for exploration and figuring out ourselves and our gender. 

In the feedback we received about our training, people love to hear the voices and personal stories of trans staff and young people. Stories are powerful, and centring trans experiences in those stories being shared, and cis trainers giving allyship to such, increases the impact of our work.  

For young people, seeing trans adults in normal jobs and living a normal life (not celebrities) is important visibility as role models. It helps those we work with to understand that trans identity is part of the person, but not all of the person. It is important to have representation of those who transitioned over a decade ago in our staff and volunteers. We know from our own transitions that being trans can take over as everything to us due to the cisnormative world we live in, and how it makes transness something we constantly have to centre,argue about,explain and fight for. Our experiences can help young people understand there can be a point in our lives when this changes. We are all fighting together for a world where being trans doesn’t have to be something we think about every minute.  

Young people tell us that having trans youth workers is important to them. Ensuring our trans leaders are the ones participating in conversations and spaces about trans lives is essential for giving integrity to our trans leadership approach. Visible trans lived experience in the leadership of the organisation supports the development of further trans leadership in all our programmes. 

In recruitment we need to make space for the fact that trans people’s CVs and employment experience might look different to cis people’s and offer flexibility around that. Providing interview questions in advance supports the accessibility of recruitment. Visible trans involvement in recruitment processes and interview panels, as well as advertising roles on LGBT Consortium website, gives prospective staff confidence in our approach to trans inclusion. Having trans staff lead, especially on policy writing, means that the trans experience is placed on an equal footing and often becomes the default rather than the ‘other’ that is experienced in so many other contexts. 

Group supervision spaces and the employee assistance programme are important forms of support for trans staff who are impacted by both the external environment and the work that we are undertaking. By providing these forms of support universally they also benefit cis staff and encourages cis staff to see trans liberation as also their responsibility, and not something to be left to trans people to pursue on their own. Supervision spaces exist to explicitly acknowledge that the current state of the world and the work that we do, will impact us emotionally and support is needed for that, in contrast to other employers who might expect more of a distinction between personal and professional experiences. As an organisation we should continue to role model self-care and the community we are building for ourselves. Having a 4-day working week gives recognition of rest being healthy and necessary. 

This is not just about trans people. Empowering trans people also needs action and allyship from cis people. Peer advocacy and support is valued by trans colleagues – speaking out for other people to ensure that they are respected often takes less of a toll than an individual doing it for themselves. There are needs for allies to do both calling out and calling in. This is easier when overall we are creating day to day environments where it’s easier to accept we all sometimes get it wrong. We can avoid defensiveness as our main response and move to a space that values ongoing learning and development.  

There is a need for continuous work to build spaces and feelings of safety given the ongoing onslaught which serves to create climates of fear and violence. This impacts trans colleagues in many different ways and care needs to be given to ensure the right forms of support are in place. Continued and consistent work is needed, particularly by cis colleagues and particularly by staff in senior roles, to both make The Kite Trust a safe and supportive space for trans people and to communicate with them that this is the case. The world continues to be wildly unsafe for trans people, and there is a tendency for institutions, structures, and organisations to veer back to this default without any physical or psychological safety for trans people. This could happen at The Kite Trust unless the work is done and the communication happens to ensure we remain, and are known as, a safe space for trans people.