The Spark To Your Success Gender and Sexual Identity Specials TeeJay Dowe, Tayshan Dowe

Welcome to The Spark To Your Success special series about sexual and gender identity.

You're going to hear the stories of young people (and a couple of young at heart people) who identify as LGBTQ+ or who support somebody who belongs to the community.

The stories are honest and open accounts of each person’s journey of self-discovery around sexual and gender identity. They share the questions they had, fears they felt, their coming out experience and how they were treated by others.

As you would expect the discussion involves some adult themes.

Throughout this series you've heard from a number of young people. In this episode you'll hear from Keith and Sarah from the charity Fflag. Fflag supports the parents and families and their LGBTQ+ members.

Both Keith and Sarah share the stories of what it's like to be a parent with a child coming out to them. As Keith says "It is a life change. Parents automatically pick a future path. [When] you get the news and the future is torn up, you get confused because you don’t know what the future will be."

For more information and resources on sexual and gender identity visit Back On Track Teens

Welcome to The Spark To Your Success special series about sexual and gender identity.

You're going to hear the stories of young people (and a couple of young at heart people) who identify as LGBTQ+ or who support somebody who belongs to the community.

The stories are honest and open accounts of each person’s journey of self-discovery around sexual and gender identity. They share the questions they had, fears they felt, their coming out experience and how they were treated by others.

As you would expect the discussion involves some adult themes.

In this episode Tayshan talks to Carolyn about stereotypes, labelling sexuality and sex education - and how sex-ed could be improved in schools for LGBTQ+ young people.

In particular Carolyn discusses the challenges she had around coming out - she went to a Catholic school and a girl identifying as a lesbian was almost unheard of. Plus the stereotypical lesbian was nothing like her.

For more information and resources on sexual and gender identity visit Back On Track Teens

Welcome to The Spark To Your Success special series about sexual and gender identity.

You're going to hear the stories of young people (and a couple of young at heart people) who identify as LGBTQ+ or who support somebody who belongs to the community.

The stories are honest and open accounts of each person’s journey of self-discovery around sexual and gender identity. They share the questions they had, fears they felt, their coming out experience and how they were treated by others.

As you would expect the discussion involves some adult themes.

Tegan is a teacher and identifies as a bisexual woman. She talks to Tayshan about how she's never really come out. She just doesn't see it as thing she needs to do - especially as it's not something that is expected of typically straight people.

Tegan also talks about how important it is to teach children about sexuality and gender.

For more information and resources on sexual and gender identity visit Back On Track Teens

Welcome to The Spark To Your Success special series about sexual and gender identity.

You're going to hear the stories of young people (and a couple of young at heart people) who identify as LGBTQ+ or who support somebody who belongs to the community.

The stories are honest and open accounts of each person’s journey of self-discovery around sexual and gender identity. They share the questions they had, fears they felt, their coming out experience and how they were treated by others.

As you would expect the discussion involves some adult themes.

In this episode you'll hear from Taz. She identifies as a bisexual woman (often just for a quick answer because she doesn't believe in giving herself a label) and is the director of volunteering for the charity Just Like Us.

The charity is made up entirely of people from the LGBTQ+ community and they work to get more diverse representation of LGBTQ+ people in schools and in front of other people.

Taz discusses her own identity as a British Bangladeshi woman and a member of the LGBTQ+ community.

For more information and resources on sexual and gender identity visit Back On Track Teens

Welcome to The Spark To Your Success special series about sexual and gender identity.

You're going to hear the stories of young people (and a couple of young at heart people) who identify as LGBTQ+ or who support somebody who belongs to the community.

The stories are honest and open accounts of each person’s journey of self-discovery around sexual and gender identity. They share the questions they had, fears they felt, their coming out experience and how they were treated by others.

As you would expect the discussion involves some adult themes.

In this episode you'll hear from Nath. He's in his early 20s and first came out when he was 12 and has identified as bi, gay and now pansexual. He talks about the need others have to stereotype him or define his sexuality but he's never felt the need to fit into stereotypes.

For more information and resources on sexual and gender identity visit Back On Track Teens

Welcome to The Spark To Your Success special series about sexual and gender identity.

You're going to hear the stories of young people (and a couple of young at heart people) who identify as LGBTQ+ or who support somebody who belongs to the community.

The stories are honest and open accounts of each person’s journey of self-discovery around sexual and gender identity. They share the questions they had, fears they felt, their coming out experience and how they were treated by others.

As you would expect the discussion involves some adult themes.

In this episode Hannah talks about being gay and asexual, which she describes as almost like having two identities. She explains what it means to be asexual and how an incident in a McDonalds as a teenager sparked off her realisation that she was asexual and not apathetically straight.

Tayshan and Hannah also discuss the importance of consent in Hannah's relationship and wider in the LGBTQ+ community.

For more information and resources on sexual and gender identity visit Back On Track Teens