As part of the celebrations of the LGBTQ+ history month, which this year was centred on medicine (#UnderTheScope), the Jean McFarlane Student Hub hosted an exhibition called “Illustrating significance in transitory times: object elicitation in trans homelessness”. The exhibition, a collection of illustrations of physical possessions that shaped the journeys of trans homeless people, is the visual component of Steph Busby’s PhD research. Steph is an occupational therapist who worked in acute medicine prior to starting this work, which encapsulates their interests in multi-minority homelessness, health inequalities and trans representation in research.

In collaboration with trans activist and artist Berwyn Mure (@b_mure), who drew the illustrations, the exhibition reflects on one of the harshest struggles of the small but poorly understood and represented trans community, being homeless, and its intersection with physical and mental health. Nonetheless, the statistics show that approximately one in four trans individuals has experienced homelessness, a rate significantly higher than the general population; in fact, some of the participants did not have a home at the time they were interviewed for the study.

On the 13^th of February we welcomed Steph for the launch event, which gathered a modest but engaged audience who had the opportunity to interact with them and ask questions. Attendants were seen discussing and contemplating the images and what they meant for the trans participants, as well as for themselves. Although the art only offers an anonymised small window into the lives of trans homeless people, the feedback collected during the event highlighted how emotionally charged was the impact it had; some of the most repeated words were sad, heartbreaking and provoking. And that is a response that one would expect from such a poignant exhibition. However, if we take a step back and look at the people and mechanisms that made it possible, we will see that those are trans stories that have been studied, documented and disseminated by trans researchers and artists, and how significant that is in the times we live in. This exhibition was displayed for the rest of February in the Jean MacFarlane Student Hub for staff and students to visit.

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