Creating Safe Spaces with Stevie Bee’s Trans Pins

If you’ve been paying attention to our content for any appreciable length of time, you’ll know how important inclusivity, activism, and human rights are to us. 

We’ve worked with many prominent LGBTQ+ community members to help them create pins , patches, and a whole lot more to spread awareness, raise money for charity, and celebrate this part of the human condition that makes the world a more colourful and interesting place to be.

One of our more notable creators is Stevie Brocksom, the founder of Stevie's Safe Spaces, whose mission is to encourage people to build a more caring and nurturing environment for transgender people, who are some of the most vulnerable members of our society.

We caught up with Stevie for a quick chat to talk about how Stevie's Safe Spaces came about, what it means to be an ally,

What inspired you to start Stevie's Safe Spaces?

"It was actually an accident. I created a graphic for social media that said, "You will have to go through me" in the colours of the trans pride flag, and my boss requested it on a t-shirt. When we made the t-shirt and posted it on Facebook, everyone wanted one, so we had to throw together a website."

Can you share the story behind David Tennant wearing your t-shirt and its impact?

"As part of my mission to increase visibility in trans activism, I send t-shirts to any TikTok influencers who have a PO Box listed in their bio.

Sometimes it pays off, and sometimes it doesn't.

Last summer, I decided to go bigger. I asked several friends who I knew were fans of David Tennant and asked them to write fan mail. We put it all in a box with one of each of my t-shirt designs and sent it off to his talent agency. Several weeks later, he wore the t-shirt to his kiddo's school pride event, and the photo went viral.

The impact is still felt a year later. That financial boost is what enabled me to produce our first run of enamel pins. It also allowed me to donate $10,000 CAD to the Greyson Jones Memorial Scholarship for trans students. I was able to fill mutual aid requests and commission trans artists.

I shared the wealth as much as I possibly could.

The boost in visibility allows me to employ two trans-non-binary individuals today, continue to provide mutual aid, and I am now planning a wedding with my husband. We have been married for 10 years, but we didn't have a wedding due to financial constraints, and we didn't have the chosen family we wanted to celebrate with yet.

I sent David and Georgia their wedding invitation as a token of our appreciation."

How do your products aim to foster safe spaces for the transgender community?

"Visibility is the goal here. It isn't to sell more T-shirts. I very rarely make sales pitches anywhere. They sell themselves. When I send these shirts to influencers and celebrities, the primary goal is to make their viewers and fans feel safe and cared for.

It's the same reason I put Protect Trans Kids on the sides of buses and leave stickers everywhere I can in public places."

What specific milestones have you achieved with the pins and badges you made with us?

"The first run of pins we produced was 1,000 units, and they all sold out in under a year. The second run was also 1000, and half are gone. The third run was 500, and we are almost done packaging them! We have plans for even more pins, but we like the exclusivity of launching one at a time with intentional packaging. They make amazing teacher gifts and are perfect for walking the Red Carpet, as we have seen several influencers take theirs for visibility on camera.

We also made enamel pins as our wedding favours because Made by Cooper has been so good to us and because the quality is impeccable and precisely the kind of keepsake that we want our wedding guests to remember our special day forever."

What future projects or goals do you have for Stevie's Safe Spaces?

"I'm currently querying publishers with my children's book, "What is a Safe Space?" with the hope of teaching about Safe Spaces to the next generation. If we can teach empathy and kindness to our children, the safe spaces of tomorrow will be in excellent hands."

*Editor's note: We're working on a surprise project that includes Stevie that'll we'll unveil in the coming weeks*

How You Can Support Stevie's Safe Spaces

You can support Stevie monetarily by buying t-shirts, hoodies, stickers and pins on their website. While they clearly state that these products are "political statements, not fashion statements, the designs are fantastic and really drive home their point.

Alternatively, following Stevie on Instagram or Facebook and sharing their content and posts will help spread awareness of the Safe Spaces organisation and provide knowledge and assistance for those in need.

But the best way to truly support the cause is to be an ally and a safe space for transgender people everywhere because that's the ultimate goal here: to leave the world a better and kinder place than we found it.

Want to Create Your Own Trans Rights & Activism Custom Merch?

If you're feeling inspired by Stevie's Safe Spaces and fancy trying your hand at creating trans rights pins (or any other form of custom merch), we offer a FREE design service that will bring your ideas to life, even if you don't have any design experience.

Contact our friendly sales team today, and we'll walk you through everything you need to get started.