Abstract

"Gender Renaissance Animation” project started in 2012. It is a pilot and pioneering project analysing the impact of animation, the production process and film (Good Hearts Model 2011) in tackling issues surrounding and relating to having a parent who is transgender. The project was delivered by the University of Sunderland and Barnardos Orchard Mosaic.
‘The project followed and assessed the effectiveness of a developed research model from previous work using Animation in a therapeutic and applied nature whilst working within a new area. The film and preproduction process delivered an expressive and significant outcome, meaningful throughout to the child.
Transgender is an overall expression for individuals whose gender identity or appearance does not correspond to the sex to which they were appointed at birth.
Gender identity relates to an internal thought process of being a particular sex or not and gender appearance relates to the characteristics of stereotypical gender icons such as clothing, hairstyle or behavior. The term is used in society to express a variety of situations related to gender. With an increase of gender changes, types, legal acceptance and the process undertaken to achieve changes, the term is becoming more widely used, more known about and discussed.

However, over the last 20 years, the Office for National Statistics has identified that there has been a reduction in inequality in a variety of areas such as equal pay for woman and educational achievements for some ethnic groups but reverse to that, disadvantages have been outlined in Sexual Identity. In October 2009, the Equality and Human rights Commission published the Trans Research Review (Mitchell and Howarth 2009). The Trans Research Review states that 'it is only in the last decade that trans people have been accorded rights and given protection in law from discrimination. There is growing recognition of the discrimination, inequalities and social exclusion that trans people face by policy makers and the public.” It goes on to say “The qualitative and quantitative evidence that has been collected to date (Whittle et al, 2007) leaves no doubt that trans people experience severe discrimination and frequent infringements of their rights across a broad spectrum of areas of life' (Alkire et al 2009).
Previous evidence intimates that transgender people experience trans phobia within their daily lives such as discriminatory behavior in schools, from family members, from work colleagues, friends and within communities. Morton (2008) discovered that 62 per cent of transgender individuals had experienced discriminatory, bullying, harassing behavior by people they did not know in public areas.
A home Office report estimated the number of transgender people in the UK is approximately 300,000 - 500,000. However there is missing data to report this accurately due to privacy, confidentiality issues, the range of different terms and where people believe they are with regard to the sex change process, the desire to just live their life as the gender they choose without interruption, the fear of trans phobia and peoples reactions. The report from the Office for National Statistics has clearly identified that there is still evidence of inequality within this area and communities have not yet adapted and accepted transgender individuals. If this is the case then what also happens when children have parents who are transgender. How does this impact on them socially, emotionally and physically. This research has identified the impact of having a parent who is transgender. It has allowed a process to develop that has lead to the creation of material by children who have parents who are transgender available for dissemination and educational purposes. The additional dissemination of a clear working model to communities and people working within this area will hopefully impact on evolution of good practice and increasing acceptance and understanding.
This project was a collaboration between the University of Sunderland, HEART, Barnardos and the NHS