Are you #JustHuman ?
Can you tell if somebody is gay based on what they want in a relationship? – was a question that Rife Magazine asked people while they were at Bristol Pride this year.
Bristol’s Watershed was commissioned by Bristol City Council’s Bristol Youth Links to develop a virtual youth service. Rife magazine forms part of the commission and was born out of consultation with young people and Bristol Talent Lab, a week of intense workshops that brought together Bristol’s most talented young digital content creators.
Rife has now been established as a new magazine for young people, written by young people. Covering film, music, art, culture, social issues and politics.
For the last six weeks Rife has been working with Brook (a sexual health organisation) to help a group of young LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) to create a piece of video content, with support from Watershed and funded by Healthwatch and Bristol City Council. Their ages ranged from 13-22, which meant deciding on something that they were collectively interested in was initially difficult, but ultimately we realised that it was simple: love.
Jon Aitken, from the magazine, explains their latest project – “..We set out to explore some of the issues facing young members of the LGBT community and create a piece of content that reflected our collective agenda. We began by listing the stereotypes associated with being LGBT and how this negatively affected us, often leading to homophobia, and progressed into discussions about what a typical ‘straight’ person might look like.”
“We went to Bristol Pride and the young LGBT group went around asking people what they thought was important to them in a relationship, whether it be romantic or platonic, and filmed their answers. Together we then created a video that breaks down stereotypes and proves that we are #JustHuman, no matter which gender or sexuality we identify with.”
Over the course of the project we came to realise that we just wanted to show the world that being LGBT doesn’t make us different; we all want love in some form, whether this be in relationships or friendships. It was a simple message that we all agreed on regardless of age.” Jon continued.
The video is currently available on the Rife Magazine website, and the group are asking people through the social networking apps – Twitter and Facebook – what is important to them in a relationship, whether this be serious or funny, using the hashtag #JustHuman.
