TransFest is an annual week-long celebration of trans and nonbinary people, hosted by Saints LGBT+. It is held in the runup to Trans Day of Remembrance (TDoR), on November 20th. We have a wide variety of events throughout the festival, and all of them are spaces where trans people can be themselves and build relationships. Our events focus on the wellbeing of the local transgender community, with plenty of opportunities to have a good time.
Some of our favourite events from TransFest include the Makeup Class and Clothing Drive, which is a safe space for people who are trans/questioning their gender to enjoy experimenting with makeup and expression. We're also proud of our Life Drawing event which opened with a panel of trans students talking about body confidence and ended with a life drawing session featuring transgender models. We had a great turnout for the Trans Club Night, where trans people and allies partied to music by queer artists.
On Trans Day of Remembrance, Saints LGBT+ holds a vigil in memory of all the people who have been killed for being transgender in the past year. This usually consists of the names of these people being read aloud by trans students of the University, as well as some quiet time for all attendees to use in a way that is meaningful to them.
In 2019, the vigil was held in St Salvator’s Chapel and attendees lit candles to commemorate the lives of those lost. In 2021, we held a ceremony in the Student's Union which involved readings and showed photographs of the trans people we've lost. The ceremony is always a safe place for everyone, regardless of gender identity or religious affiliation, to remember and mourn the loss of these members of our community.
Transcend
The idea for Transcend originated in September at the first Transfest Subcommittee meeting of 2020-2021, although the name was not coined until much later by the editorial board. With the ongoing pandemic, we knew we needed to approach this year’s events and the presence of our St Andrews gender diverse community with fresh eyes and inspiration.
The zine developed as a wonderful way to build our community through creative expression. So often the representation of gender diverse people’s lives and bodies in media and daily life is filtered through a cis gaze in order to make our existence palatable to a cis audience.
As a by-trans-for-trans publication, Transcend intends to capture living gender diverse joy unfettered by the limitations of cisnormativity. Our hope in launching Transcend is to provide gender diverse people a place to shine and express themselves fully within St Andrews.
"I want to extend my fullest gratitude to the wonderful members of the editorial board and design team—without your creative genius, passion for the project, and hours of tireless labour we could never have hoped to accomplish what we have." - Greysen (They/Them) Trans and Non-Binary Officer 2020-2021
