Progress Pride Flag
“When I was young I always felt different.
I was a quiet child. I got involved in a few things but never felt I really ‘fitted’. We moved around a few times, largely due to my Dad, and housing was an issue a couple of times. We spent a couple of months in emergency housing in a hotel, and then we were housed in a terrace: a two up two down for a family of four.
Four soon became three when Dad left, then we were rehoused in a decent house. My Mum still lives there 45+ years later!
I realised through this experience that my four walls were me. My difference was being trans, so the walls were my own body. However I tried to mould myself and conform to expectations, that wasn’t going away.
I was 33 when I “came out”, and that helped.
12 years later, in 2010, I realised the person I saw in the mirror wasn’t me anymore. The woman inside was looking out of the windows of a prison, through the eyes of a body that was wrong. I had to change.
I started that journey in 2011, and physically achieved balance in 2013. Fast forward to 2025 and I’m now happily married. The four walls around me are now spiritually, emotionally and physically home, and you have helped through that journey.
To me, “Stargazing” is a way of imagining what might be. I spent so long dreaming of how things might be in the future. I reached for those stars and arrived in a world that, while not perfect, is far far better than I hoped for in the past. Your music has followed me on the journey for some of the way, since I first heard “Paper Thin” in 2016.
The progress pride flag represents my story and all the people who are trapped either in their own internal four walls, their own space or the so called “closet”, unable or not allowed to be their true selves.
The four walls that people have to build around themselves can be really oppressive and lead to far more LGBT+ people having mental health issues. My own were really quite dark until the start of my journey out towards a lighter place.
Some don’t make the journey.”
Julia Georgiou
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Come back to the basement…