Charlie Crags, activist, nail artist and human being visits Brighton and Hove with her pop up nail bar to celebrate IDAHOBIT.
Charlie’s activism – Nail Transphobia – is all about fighting transphobia fabulously. She travels around the country with her pop up salon and invites complete strangers to come and get their nails done for free.
This gives her the chance to sit down with someone who has usually never met a trans person before but probably has a lot of misconceptions.
Charlie says: “I get the chance to bond with them while I paint their nails – they can ask me questions and I can teach them how to be an ally. But what’s most important is just having a chat and a laugh because what I’m really trying to do with my campaign is humanise the issue and show that trans people are just normal (actually rather nice) people. I’m trying to change hearts and minds a nail at a time.”
Charlie’s visit was by invitation of the city council’s LGBT Workers Forum as part of celebrating LGBT+ lives for IDAHOBIT on May 17.
IDAHOBIT marks the day in 1990 when the World Health Organisation removed homosexuality from its International Classification of Diseases.
The purpose of IDAHOBIT is to raise awareness of LGBT+ rights and stimulate interest in the work of LGBT+ activists worldwide. Events this year took place in more than 120 countries on every continent in every region of the world.
Charlie says: “I use nails as my catalyst for change because doing someone’s nails is such an intimate interaction, I get to touch people, not just physically – as in touching their hands, but touch them on a deeper level too. As a result hopefully they’ll go away with more than just a manicure, they’ll go away with a new perspective – they’ll go away an ally.
Allies are so important in both our fight for equality and also in the fight that is our everyday lives as trans people; if it wasn’t for allies stepping in when I’ve been attacked in the past I might not be here doing this now”
Charlie spent the morning in Hove Town Hall and all afternoon at Jubilee Library, attracting a queue of people, of all ages and backgrounds who were keen to spend a moment meeting a fabulous person, learning a little about their lives and leaving with seriously buff nails!
For more information about Charlie and her novel form of activism, click here: