LGBTQ+ Wellness Centre talk on Mental Health in the LGBTQ+ Community! Interview w/ The New Talent Academy
James Kearslake from the LGBTQ+ Wellness Centre joins the New Talent Academy to talk
about empowering youth with self-defence classes and the importance of LGBTQ+ mental health.
James shares on their experience as a previous banker who due to barriers and homophobia pushed
themselves to make a change and provide a space for LGBT wellness were any person, no matter gender or
sexuality, can feel comfortable with being themselves while empowering one selves’ with classes like
Yoga, Spin, and self defence.
The self-defences classes are aimed for Trans/GNC (gender non-conforming) people, the classes were set
up after the murder of Brianna Ghey in Warrington, who in the wake of her incident the LGBTQA+
charities and communities came together and understood they needed to be able to defend and support
themselves.
The classes work in collaboration with Trans charity Sparkle, and in its website, the classes state:
“With hates crimes towards trans people on the rise globally, and an increase of + 69% to hate crimes
reported by trans people in the last 12 months in Greater Manchester, learning to protect yourself is
a critical life skill.
Self-defence is about learning to stay calm, and being prepared, for when somebody is acting aggressively
towards you within your personal space.
It is not about attacking someone with great skill, but instead disarming the situation, and being
equipped to remove yourself from a situation as quickly as possible, should the aggressor be unwilling
to calm down.
In these fully funded classes, made available thanks to Sparkle – The National Transgender Charity,
we have a trained instructor delivering easy-to-use self-defence skills.”
Check out the full interview for more!
For signing up to the classes and know more of LGBTQ+ Wellness visit:
https://lgbtqwellness.co/
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