On Saturday 27th September 2025, We Are Survivors were very happy to be invited to present at Manchester’s first CrimeCon. Our wonderful design and comms co-ordinator Grahame had set up an eye-catching stand alongside a range of podcasters and organisations for the 300 true crime enthusiasts in attendance to engage with on the subjects of psychology and criminology.
In the afternoon Duncan, George and Kaelin took to the stage to deliver a presentation on our organisation’s mission to leave NO male survivor behind, highlighting the issue with the violence against women and girls’ strategy and discussing the relative silence in cases such as that of Reynard Sinaga.
But importantly we had a range of incredible conversations after our presentation: people came up to us to discuss the differing experience of male, trans and non-binary survivors and the issues that we face because of this.
Ultimately, we attend these events to raise awareness, to educate and to encourage intelligent conversations. The interest that was sparked by their presentation was a testament to George and Duncan’s powerful and charismatic words but also to the open-mindedness of our audience.
Much of the shame and stigma that male survivors are so unfairly made to face is due to ignorance, to not thinking of the impact of one’s words. We left CrimeCon on Saturday with the confidence that the 300 people in attendance were now survivor allies, who understood a little more of the difficulties that a survivor can face on their journey and how they can avoid being a part of the problem.
