Teva Pride Q&A

First off, Hi! Please tell us your name, your preferred pronouns and a little bit about yourself & how you like to start your day. 

Hi! My name is Sid Littlewood, my pronouns are They/Them and I am someone that’s really engaged with the queer community and standing up for queer rights. 

I live near the ocean, on Dharawal Land so I always start my day by walking my dog, Frankie, by the ocean headlands before I head into work. It’s such a beautiful way to connect with the country and start my day!

Can you share a little bit about Twenty10? We’d love to know what types of services and events you offer to support LGBTQIA+ youth.

Over 40 years ago, Twenty10 was founded as a youth housing refuge by volunteers that came together after seeing that a lot of the LGBTQIA+ youth were ending up in homelessness. Twenty10 aims to offer a safe space for people to be themselves, offering housing, mental health and social support services, alongside a range of training and support for organisations and schools that would like to learn more about working with LGBTIQA+ young people. 

My role as a Client Engagement Officer means that I get to focus on social connection and group support through exciting events and programs both in-person and online that foster community and allow young folks to meet new people within the community such as the OUTDoors program. 

What is the OUTDoors program? How have you found that spending time outdoors and exploring nature can benefit LGBTQIA+ youth? 

The OUTDoors program is a series of outdoor events and workshops where folks are given the opportunity to connect with nature, the country, and their bodies in a positive way. We know that a lot of outdoor spaces don’t feel safe for LGBTQIA+ folks, which is why we want to create space where we can have safety in numbers to explore environments that may not always feel welcoming to us. 

Can you tell us a bit about the upcoming OUTDoors event and the importance of Twenty10 partnering with brands such as Teva? 

This year we will be running our OUTDoors events alongside our Mardi Gras 2024 programming with three events to ensure that folks of any fitness level and experience will feel comfortable and empowered to explore the environment.  

We have a beautiful walk planned to a waterhole, for more advanced hikers to really get the chance to feel their bodies moving in partnership with Teva. We plan to walk through the National Park, learning about the area and country, including birds and plant life. We will picnic and swim and it's a great opportunity for young people to connect with community in a lower sensory setting and enjoy nature at the same time!  

At Twenty10, we take who we partner with seriously. We look for brands that already show us that they are committed to representing our community and for a few years, Teva have been producing beautiful Pride ranges that really nod to our community.  

What does community mean to you? 

Community is about showing up. It’s about care, trust, and belonging. Community isn’t something that already exists, it’s an intentional coming together of people to support and lift each other up. Community is everything, and the ways we try to build this in the world is really meaningful. It means that you always have a space where you belong, and people can belong to many communities. 

Did you have an organisation like Twenty10 to support you while you were growing up? Why is Twenty10 so meaningful to you now? 

I grew up in a coastal regional town in NSW and attended a Catholic high school. Twenty10 did exist back then, but I didn’t know about it and one of the main reasons why it’s so meaningful to me now is because I know how different my journey would have been if I knew about it then. 

I made a decision when I was 13 that I wasn’t going to come out until I was in university. There was a lot of shame attached to hiding what I knew was true for me and I hope that young folks now can avoid living with that shame with the help of organisations like Twenty10. In the age of social media, that information now is so much easier to find. It’s healing to know that young folks across NSW have the opportunity to get in touch with our community, whether that’s in person or online.

Where have you found yourself wearing your new Teva Pride sandals, how do they fit into your lifestyle? 

I’m someone that wears their values through lots of slogan T-shirts! My new Teva Pride sandals allow me to wear my values and act as a conversation starter. Knowing that they are easy to clean and so versatile, I can wear them on my morning walks to the beach then straight into work and around the city. Sustainability is also really important to me and these Teva sandals are the perfect one-shoe-fits-all that I know will last me a long time. 

How does Twenty10 celebrate Mardi Gras 2024? Talk us through your ultimate Mardi Gras look. 

Not all of our Mardi Gras programming is released yet, however, you’ll definitely be seeing Twenty10 marching in the parade, celebrating the theme of ‘Our Future’ - so watch out for that! 

My ultimate Mardi Gras look would be very sci-fi and futuristic, practical but weird. I’m such a futurist and am always thinking about what our queer utopia is and how we can embody that. I’d definitely incorporate upcycled fashion, recycled and natural elements that speak to the impacts of climate change and a time of overconsumption. 

What are the key elements that ensure Twenty10’s events are impactful and supportive? 

At Twenty10, we run all of our events and programs under an ‘invitation to participate in creating safer spaces’. We work towards an agreement that it is everyone’s responsibility to ensure these spaces are as safe as possible for all. 

We have an amazing team of Twenty10 Queer Leaders, who are our LGBTQIA+ advisory board of young folks. We love asking the community for feedback and working in collaboration with young folks to ensure they have input into our events and programs and how we can improve them. 

As someone actively involved in the community, how do you envision the future of LGBTQIA+ advocacy and support, and what role can individuals and organisations play in shaping that future? 

I imagine a time where we won’t need to advocate for our needs because everyone feels safe and supported to be themselves. It’s really important that we recognise it’s not enough to advocate for equality just for queer people, because we know that queer people are whole people that also experience different types of oppression, whether it’s race, disability, or other. 

Community advocacy and support needs to recognise this intersectionality and that it’s about celebrating people and their humanity as a whole. We all have a role to play in shaping this future by respecting and affirming differences across communities and pushing beyond what we’ve already achieved. 

@twenty10glcs

Photography: @annahayhayhay