Alice Denny’s connection with Fox Fisher began under the glaring lights of national television but has turned into a lasting friendship as they have fought to live openly.
Their friendship has charted one of the most turbulent times in UK history for trans people. But through those troubles, they have discovered how being visibly themselves can be a powerful force, for themselves and the LGBTQIA+ community.
Now the pair are among the stars of our new campaign. We’re using storytelling about real LGBTQIA+ friendships to tackle hatred and polarisation. Our message is a simple one: Hate closes, love opens. Live Pride Wide Open.
How visibility forged a connection
Alice first saw trans guy Fox on the 2011 Channel 4 documentary My Transexual Summer.
At the time, parent to four Alice was undergoing “a rather painful long-winded coming out” as a trans woman.
Fox, meanwhile, appeared to have the openness thing nailed, taking a leading role in a TV show that was to raise trans issues onto the national stage in a way nothing had before.
But he too wasn’t telling his full story. He told me: “It’s not something I’d recommend anyone to do at the start of their medical transition or social transition – to go on to national television and bear it all. It was a tricky one for me because I wasn’t allowed to talk about being transmasculine non-binary.
“I was using the term genderqueer at the time and they just said, ‘Listen Fox the Channel 4 audience is not gonna understand what you’re talking about, just simplify your experience’. So I ended up using the wording that I’d used in order to access medical treatment with the doctors – I’m female-to-male, I’m she-to-he – very, very binary.”
Taking ownership of trans stories
The show spurred Fox, an artist and filmmaker, to make films about their own community. When Fox later met Alice in a pub in the famous seaside town of Brighton, southern England, Fox was inspired to capture Alice’s story.
Fox tells Alice: “My Transsexual Summer made me want to pick up a camera, cut out the middleman and make films about people in my community.
“I’d seen you around and you were this great poet, you just had so much life to you. You were one of the first people that we filmed, and I was so enamoured with how you just let us into your life and you were so real and so vulnerable. And as a consequence, I feel like we have a friendship for life.”
For Alice, the connection was profound, especially after years of suppressing her identity, which led to a period she tells me was “a bit dark” where she contemplated suicide.
She ultimately drew on her experience as a community psychiatric nurse: “I know I would have told my patients, use everything you’ve got to try to achieve your dream. If it fails, you’ve still got that. So I took my own advice about it really.”
Moving to Brighton and meeting Fox helped her life “suddenly take off”.
Being seen for the first time
My Transsexual Summer, came out during what Fox describes as “more of an innocent time” when people were “just curious” rather than prejudiced about trans lives. His visibility and subsequent filmmaking had a deep resonance.
When Fox sent Alice the rough cut of the film they made, Alice saw herself reflected for the first time.
“When I saw the film, I just burst into tears. You sent me the rough edit and I saw it and burst into tears because you’d seen me. It showed me the way I felt inside but didn’t think the world saw. It sort of ratified me. It gave me this great bit of confidence is that I can be that person,” Alice shares.
“People have contacted me directly and said ‘can we have a coffee because I want to just find out if it’s okay [to be trans]?’ And I’ve had a coffee with them and said, ‘It’s better than okay.’”
Losing friends and finding friendship
While living openly helped others, it came at a cost for both Fox and Alice. Alice has family members who no longer talk to her, and Fox has lost friends over differing opinions about trans youth. It is this mutual experience of loss that has cemented their friendship as a sanctuary.
Fox describes Alice as a constant source of support: “We both know what it feels like to lose loved ones and for friendships to fall away and sometimes that’s been surprising.
“Some people you think are just going to be with you for life and actually you realise that they have certain opinions. It is heartbreaking losing people and that’s why my friendship with Alice is just so solid. We’ve always had a mutual respect and understanding of each other and where we come from and how we fought to be alive. Alice was always my sanctuary in many ways. If things were a bit intense in other places, we’d meet up and put the world to rights for a few hours.”
Alice echoes this deep understanding: “Occasionally I just message you because I know Fox will just get it.”
Live Pride Wide Open
Alice and Fox are sharing their story of friendship as part of our Live Pride Wide Open campaign.
At a time of polarisation and division, we’re showcasing the humans behind the headlines and the hysteria and explaining how mutual respect and friendship can overcome society’s divisions. We’re hoping to inspire you to Live Pride Wide Open too – to be there for your friends and families, to listen to each other’s stories and to help us create a world where everyone can be themselves and thrive.
Our campaign resonates with both Alice and Fox as creatives and as humans.
Alice has written about being trans as a poet and Fox, an artist and filmmaker, created the logo for the first-ever Trans Pride. For Fox, art is a way of creating something “so much bigger than us as individuals”. However, the core of their activism is simply existing honestly.
Alice confesses: “I didn’t want this. I just wanted to just live my life as a woman. But somebody has got to stick their head above the parapet.”
Fox concludes by highlighting the inherent power in their openness: “We’re in it together, you know, we’re in the trenches and we’re just just helping people in a hopefully in a very chilled out way to just understand that we’re just human beings. Just being yourself is political enough every day.”
Alice’s simple response captures the quiet power of living a truthful life: “Just being on the bus and talking to somebody.”
Live Pride Wide Open
You can see the Live Pride Wide Open campaign throughout June 2026 on JCDecaux outdoor screens around the UK and at Outernet in Tottenham Court Road, London. Read the stories behind the images on our Pride Wide Open page. And if you can, please make a donation so we can keep tackling hatred and promoting a world where all LGBTQIA+ people can thrive.
