Tanya Compas is a British

youth worker Youth work is a community support activity aimed at older children and adolescents. Depending upon the culture and the community, different services and institutions may exist for this purpose. In general, it provides an environment where young pe ...

and

LGBT rights Rights affecting lesbian, Gay men, gay, Bisexuality, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the Capital punishmen ...

activist, working especially with queer Black young people in London.

Life

Compas used to work as a caseworker for the Albert Kennedy Trust, where she worked with homeless young LGBT people. In 2019, she became

homeless Homelessness, also known as houselessness or being unhoused or unsheltered, is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and functional housing. It includes living on the streets, moving between temporary accommodation with family or friends, liv ...

after falling out with her family, due to Compas's

sexuality Human sexuality is the way people experience and express themselves sexually. This involves biological, psychological, physical, erotic, emotional, social, or spiritual feelings and behaviors. Because it is a broad term, which has varied ...

. She explained that her "sexuality wasn’t a secret but the difference was when I brought my girlfriend to my family home to stay over; they couldn’t ignore the fact that I’m gay". She then had to spend

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

alone, without her family, and decided that she would use her experiences working in the charity and social work sector to create events which would support other Black

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...

youth who are estranged from their families. In December 2019, she started the "Queer Black Christmas" event in London to do so, using a

Crowdfunder Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance, to fund projects "without standard financial ...

to raise money for it, raising just over £7000. During the national lockdown in the UK during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

in June 2020, she decided to start raising money to set up the "Exist Loudly Fund", with which she intended to "support the needs of young people in the queer black community", with projects such as "monthly workshops, mentoring projects and fun activities, ... ndphysical supplies, like breast binders". Following the resurgence of Black Lives Matter protests in the UK, her Crowdfunder gained in popularity, raising £110,000 for this fund, which was enough for her to register it as a charity.

Personal life

She came out when she was 23, and has a girlfriend. She is gay and

genderfluid Gender fluidity (commonly referred to as genderfluid) is a non-fixed gender identity that shifts over time or depending on the situation. These fluctuations can occur at the level of gender identity or gender expression. A genderfluid person m ...

. However, in 2020, she

Tweeted A tweet (officially known as a post since 2023) is a short status update on the social networking site Twitter (officially known as X since 2023) which can include images, videos, GIFs, straw polls, hashtags, mentions, and hyperlinks. Around ...

that she doesn't like using the word "identify" to refer to someone's

gender Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...

or sexual identity, as it "makes it seem like its a choice". She also said "I don't identify as queer, I AM queer". In 2018, Amnesty UK named her as "one of the UK’s most inspiring women", and the ''

Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...

'' listed her on its ''Progress 1000'' list of London's most influential people.

References

External links

* * Radio broadcast featuring Compas. {{DEFAULTSORT:Compas, Tanya Living people English women activists Black British LGBTQ people English LGBTQ rights activists Activists from London Year of birth missing (living people) British women civil rights activists Genderfluid people