Week 36, Trans Rights Are Human Rights.

Norbert II has landed!

After the original giant crocheted dragon from the Burton’s Bollards project was pinched a few weeks ago, I did the only sensible thing and made another enormous purple dragon. He’s now been installed (thanks to my kids for the assist!) and is back where he belongs, keeping watch over Burton once again.

There’s something rather lovely about Norbert II existing at all. Through selfishness or thoughtlessness, someone took something that had been made with love for the community, and the response was simply to fix it. More yarn, more silliness, more colour, more joy.

From one statement to another, this week’s Kindness Cardi panel is:

Trans Rights Are Human Rights.

I made this panel in response to the increasingly hostile conversation around trans people that we are surrounded by, particularly in the media. Behind all of that noise are actual people, trying to live their lives.

Trans people are not new. They haven’t suddenly appeared because we’ve started talking about them more. Trans and gender diverse people have existed across cultures and throughout history.

This panel wasn’t made to join the shouting. It was made to make my own position very clear. Trans people deserve kindness. They deserve dignity. They deserve safety. They deserve the same basic human rights as everybody else.

Throughout the Kindness Cardi project I’ve always encouraged those making panels along with me to choose the subjects that resonate most with them. That’s important. That way, you end up with a Cardi that is uniquely yours.

However, if a panel on the Kindness Cardi makes you feel uncomfortable, don’t immediately look away. Reflect on why.

Kindness isn’t only about the easy stuff. It isn’t just yarn bombing, giant purple dragons and making people smile.

Sometimes kindness has teeth, and means standing beside people when the world is being particularly unkind to them.

Kindness first.

Always.

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