Caithness Pride organiser Cassie Greenford details excitement at first ever Pride March taking place in Thurso: ‘It just didn’t feel like something that would ever happen here’

After feeling isolated as a child, Cassie Greenford hopes that the first ever Pride March in Caithness can show young LGBTQ+ people in the region that they are not alone.

Identifying as both bisexual and a trans woman, Miss Greenford has had multiple coming outs – and multiple reasons to feel different.

That was only enhanced by being born in England before moving around Wick, Thurso and Reay, being tagged as an outsider even before any questions of identity raised their heads.

When those issues came to the forefront of her mind after leaving school, then, it was a terrifying prospect to have to come to terms with.

However, generally speaking the reaction has been far more positive than could have been expected.

“Looking back, I can see the signs, but growing up I didn’t really realise that trans was something you could be,” she reflected.

“It’s not something that was shown to me a lot in Caithness, just through being a smaller place. I was born in England, so I had an English accent and I was the only one not from the local area in my year group, so I was already an outsider.

“I always felt very isolated in general, both as a child who was growing up in a community that I wasn’t born into, unlike a lot of other people up here, but also as someone who was starting to question my own relationship with my gender and sexuality.

“I did get called names growing up, which probably weathered me a bit and made me a bit more averse to talking about being queer because that was bad. I wished I was able to be in a position where I could be more open with myself.

“There was a lot of anti-queerness when I was growing up. ‘Gay’ was the word that was used whenever something was bad, and other variations on that, so it was really scary to come out.

“I think something that doesn’t get talked about a lot is that you don’t only come out once – it keeps happening. I still bump into people I haven’t seen for five years and have to tell them I’m trans, and please don’t use my old name anymore.

“It took a lot for me to come out as transgender, and I lost friends because of it. Unfortunately that’s a universal experience. People will take these things differently, and I’m lucky that my family have always done their best to support me.

“It actually surprised me how positive it was overall. Most of my friends have been extremely supportive, and I’ve made lots of new friends and comrades and allies ever since.”

Miss Greenford has been no stranger to taking on an activist role in her life. She has worked in trade unions, and volunteers for national charity LGBT+ Youth Scotland at a time where they have come under plenty of fire.

She has also had the seemingly universal experience of LGBTQ+ people in turning into an educator for friends and family, but that is something she willingly takes on to try and win over hearts and minds.

She continued: “It’s tough sometimes. I was speaking to my brother recently, and just as I was heading out the door he asked me about the recent Supreme Court decision. I had to explain what that really means for trans people, and then he asked about sport.

“I am an activist, and it’s important to me that if I have a voice, I use it. The questions can be difficult, especially because I find it really difficult to remove emotion from them.

“I’m so used to getting asked these things from people who don’t want to know the answers, the trolls with their gotcha questions, that hearing them again from people who just don’t fully understand can be very triggering.

“I want to be able to answer them and give my perspective, and support my community as best I can. It can be really draining having to answer the same two or three questions over and over again, but it’s important to me to do this because I’m someone who can.

“The problem with Google is that you run the risk of people finding the creeps and going down that rabbit hole. I am a person in front of you, here is my experience, here is how this makes me feel and the concerns I have.

“There are times where I wish I could just be someone else. I often do wish that I didn’t have to do it – in a perfect world everything would be fine for the trans cause and I could go and live a peaceful life, but it isn’t.

“I am who I am because we need more young activists, and it’s important to me that I continue pushing these things.”

Part of Miss Greenford’s determination comes from seeing attacks on her community. As well as the recent Supreme Court decision, she also points to Brianna Ghey’s murder as a turning point in her activism.

Through a number of other projects, that has led to being part of Stepping Out’s committee organising Caithness Pride in Thurso this weekend.

She hopes it can be a breakthrough moment for both the LGBTQ+ and wider communities based in the region, showing the former they are not alone and reminding the latter that queer people exist in the area.

“I wish it was less about this general identity, this general fear of people going into toilets or ‘transing’ your kids, or going into sports and taking these competitions away, and people would just see us as other people trying to live our lives,” she added.

“I think every letter in the community feels like that. We exist, and we have always existed for as long as humans have had any form of identity.

“Seeing us be removed from our humanity sometimes, and get treated so cruelly sometimes, is difficult, so I wish people would treat us with more empathy and put themselves in our shoes.

“I think Pride in Thurso will remind people that LGBTQ+ people exist here. It’s so easy to live your life and only see what you want to see, and just see everyone else who already walks like you and talks like you, and pretend there are no other communities here.

“Whenever I talk to queer people about their experiences of growing up, they say it felt so isolating, and knowing that that’s the case breaks my heart.

“Pride is about having these people know that they are welcome, accepted and should be celebrated for making their way through what is inarguably a really difficult course in life compared to some.

“Growing up, Prides were things that happened in Glasgow and London, but not in Thurso. It just didn’t feel like something that would ever happen here, because it always just felt so removed from everything else.

“It’s so far away from all of these other things going on that it’s really easy to forget that there is a queer community up here if you don’t know where to look.

“Knowing that we’ll be able to have this kind of representation and signal boost, and flag up to people of all ages that there are these communities and community support in Caithness is so exciting to me.

“It’s so cool to see it happening in Thurso. I genuinely think that everyone I’ve spoken to about it in person has said they are looking forward to it, even if they aren’t part of the LGBTQ+ community.

“I think there’s going to be a really big turnout, and I’m genuinely so excited and proud of my community for being able to make this happen.”

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