Teresa Garratty: Why I’ve been creating a LGBT+ short drama for BSL Zone

When you’re a deaf person, you don’t really get a lot of representation in the media. When you’re an LGBT+ person, you don’t get a lot of representation in the media either. When you’re a deaf LGBT+ person…well, I’ll let you do the maths.

Growing up deaf in a hearing world or LGBT+ in a straight world can be a really confusing and stressful experience.

There’s always a a looming uncertainty that you’re doing it all wrong and it can be really difficult to understand who you truly are. There are next to no big role models and very few footsteps to follow in.

A lot of growing up deaf LGBT+ comes down to trial and error which is most definitely less than ideal. Mistakes are made more often then they have to be, hearts are left broken where they needn’t be and in some of the worst cases, lives are lost much sooner than they should have been.

Confusion, isolation, uncertainty. These things can play havoc with your mental health and that’s why it’s so important to have people you can look up to. People you can turn to for some sage wisdom. Someone or something that can make you feel like you’re not alone.

They’ve been where you are, they know the things you’re feeling and they can help you understand, or at least try to. You can learn from their mistakes without having to live through them yourself, alone. You can find comfort in seeing your thoughts, worries and dreams reflected back at you in tales from someone else’s journey.

You can heal a broken heart quicker or avoid it altogether by following the advice of those who have already survived that part of their life.

At the moment, a lot of navigation through life as a deaf LGBT+ person can be hit and miss. While learning by experience can be great in a practical sense, it isn’t so effective when it comes to emotional and sexual relationships.

It’s important to know that you can learn a lot about who you are, without turning yourself or others into some sort of inhumane, morally void lab experiment. When it comes to pregnancy and STIs, broken trust and burnt bridges, it’s more often too late for “I’m sorry, can we just move past this?”.

The damage is already done. Things like sexuality and gender DO matter and you deserve to live in a space where you feel comfortable enough to be honest about who you are, or who you think you may be in the future and know that others are being honest with you too! Nothing good comes from lying, hiding from your truth or rushing and pretending to be something you’re not.

Deaf LGBT+ people need to know that they can be open and truthful about who they are, not just for themselves but for all those they may encounter along the way. How can we support each other and build relationships if we’re always lying and changing our identity?

Is that really how you want to go through life? Applying a new label each time you want to fit in? Is that how you want your deaf LGBT+ friends/family to go through life too?

They say the best way to lead is by example and since I’m somewhat of a borderline grown up and in a very VERY slight position of power, I’ve decided to take a small step towards representing deaf LGBT+ people in film/TV.

With the help of Flashing Lights Media and BSLBT, we have been working on creating the very first LGBT+ short drama for the BSL Zone.

We strived to ensure deaf LGBT+ people were included both in front of and behind the camera, as representation on AND off screen was hugely important to us. After all, there’s not much point in preaching through the screen without practicing those ethics in real life!

As this is all uncharted territory, we’ve started off very small and that of course means that not everyone will feel represented by this first short film. However, I hope that we can build on this in the future, with even bigger deaf LGBT+ stories.

Perhaps it will encourage others to share their personal experiences too, whether that be via film, books, poetry, art or any other means possible. The main thing is that we’re getting the knowledge out there and hopefully one day these stories will become a young deaf LGBT+ persons guide to survival.