Over the last few years, politicians and conservative figures have consistently attacked the trans and non-binary community by spewing hateful rhetoric and introducing legislation targeting their rights or access to healthcare. From the 47th president of the United States issuing anti-trans executive orders to the UK Supreme Court’s ruling excluding trans women from the legal definition of womanhood, the conservative agenda has stopped at nothing to undermine the dignity, rights and existence of trans and non-binary people.

While the current political landscape is steadily chipping away at the community’s livelihoods and well-being, there are a handful of organisations fighting back against the rise of anti-trans hate, such as Mermaids.

For over 30 years, Mermaids has worked tirelessly to support trans and non-binary youth in the UK by offering life-saving services and resources. They have also used their platform to raise money for the community through special events, including Miles for Mermaids, and the sale of merchandise.

Recently, the charity teamed up with LGBTQIA+ activist and award-winning artist Joseph Harwood to create the ‘Don’t Be Mad, Be A Mermaid’ shirt. Blending mermaid fantasy with gripping street style, the bold, eye-catching design offers fashion enthusiasts and LGBTQIA+ advocates an opportunity to make an important statement in style.

We were able to chat with Joseph and the Mermaids crew about their powerful and iconic collaboration, creative process and more.

Congratulations on your recent merchandise collaboration. How did this Mermaids x Joseph Harwood partnership come to be?

Joseph: Firstly, I want to say how grateful I am to be chatting to Gay Times after being able to do makeup for many of the queens you’ve interviewed over the years. To reintroduce my work, I was one of the first trans people to brand themselves online, and I modelled my look and merchandise on the image of a mermaid. 

During my career, I faced a lot of discrimination and a lack of coverage when it came to my projects, most notably when I won a reality show with Simon Cowell called the You Generation in 2014. A lot of people remember Little Mix doing the accent challenge instead of [me] being the first trans person to accomplish that milestone [of winning You Generation], and that really isn’t cool when my work has been so widely repeated. The artist that created celebrity transformation tutorials and gender transformation tutorials was a trans person – and we consistently see cultural erasure when it comes to telling trans people’s stories to a wider audience. I wanted to give back after building such a successful career for myself and Mermaids was the perfect alignment. 

Can you take us through the creative process? What were some of the initial ideas you all explored at the start of this partnership?

Joseph: The original story of a mermaid was told to me from an older person’s perspective, and they said the narrative was similar to a gay person falling in love with a straight person, and being unable to share their authenticity. I think there’s something in that, and the original tale is a bit darker than the Disney movie. I was playing with imagery and did a look with long pink hair.

I shared the visuals, and everyone told me they saw it as a mermaid. It basically blew up on Facebook and was shared tens of thousands of times repeatedly, it was a magical moment because it became a virally shared image without a negative connotation. I said to Mermaids, ‘You’ve gotta do something with this as I own the picture, and it’ll be a fab concept to support back!’ 

For the final product, the ‘Don’t Mad, Be a Mermaid’ t-shirt/sleeveless shirt was born. Was there anything in particular that inspired this bold and eye-catching design?

Joseph: I think people are getting so mad when discussing the trans community because there has been this social compression since the pandemic, when everyone was stuck in the house. People were joining TikTok and other social media, and probably for the first time, seeing a world of people they had absolutely no opinion about before. The other ingredient is the exploitation of unresolved trauma by public figures, who have been conjuring up a figure of a Boogie-Man specifically about trans women. The outcome of that is people then start to believe that there is a potential risk if we co-exist. To me, that is not only maddening but completely irresponsible. The outcome is this recent change in law. We’re smart people and we need to look at evidence on a wider scale with multiple examples before we start creating pandemonium. To have people grab me when I’m walking into a venue and quiz me about my use of bathrooms is really mad, when women’s rights to body autonomy are being eroded on a global scale. So do not be mad, be a mermaid!