Melissa Harker
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melissa.green
Melissa Harker
@melissa.green
220 followers 120 following 250 posts
28. Campaigner in Gateshead for the Green Party. Neurodiverse, trans and queer.
Digital Comms for @lgbtiqagreens.bsky.social & Co-Chair @neyounggreens.bsky.social
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melissa.green
I had a great time meeting the cool people in @cumbria-greens.bsky.social at their new members event.
December 6, 2025 at 2:17 PM
melissa.green
Was out today listening to the concerns and issues affecting residents in Gateshead today with my fellow @gatesheadgreens.bsky.social colleagues!
Five people standing outside with a new build housing estate in the background. From left to right: Pat, Mark, Melissa, Rachel and Patrick. Melissa, Pat and Patrick are holding bright green clipboards. All five people are smiling.
November 2, 2025 at 8:22 PM
melissa.green
Litter: picked 🚮. We went out yesterday and picked litter near the Australia flats in Bridges yesterday. 💚 @gatesheadgreens.bsky.social
Melissa is smiling in the front with a black jumper with a Green Party logo on it. Behind her is six people: five men and one woman with bin bags and some have litter picks. Everyone has Green Party badges. Six people with litter picks standing around a number of black bags that are full of litter. Two of those are Melissa and Mark who are campaigners for the Bridges ward of Gateshead.
October 20, 2025 at 10:05 AM
melissa.green
It was great to see the turnout of green members in Gateshead this morning for our Green Tea! @gatesheadgreens.bsky.social
13 people surrounding multiple tables with teas and coffees on the table. There are various ages, races and genders of everyone surrounding the table, in the front is Melissa, wearing an #ElectTheDolls Tee
October 11, 2025 at 10:55 AM
melissa.green
YES ZACK! Finally a politician that answers the question and takes no shit.

SO PROUD OF @greenparty.org.uk under @zackpolanski.bsky.social. 🤩

🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️💚
October 10, 2025 at 12:47 PM
melissa.green
It was great to speak to some members after a business meeting. We went for pints at Microbus! Great policies, great social events. What’s not to love? join.greenparty.org.uk
6 people around a pub table with a lot of decorations on the wall. Caption at the bottom reads: Promoted by Pam Woolner on behalf of the Green Party, c/o PO Box 78066, London SE16 9GQ
September 11, 2025 at 8:20 PM
melissa.green
It was nice to get out to Leeds today for a meet up with some folk from the co I work for. Lovely place! Will be back!
A shot of some canal boats in a canal, as well as the Leeds skyline. Hotel on the left, apartments on the right. Grey clouds above but very much sunny.
August 28, 2025 at 5:04 PM
melissa.green
Myself and the @gatesheadgreens.bsky.social were out delivering leaflets earlier today to people in Village Heights and Coatsworth Road area.

Promoted by Pam Woolner on behalf of the Green Party, c/o PO Box 78066, London SE16 9GQ
Melissa and Joe holding up our Green View newsletters in Trinity Square. Rachel and Pat holding up our Green View newsletters in Trinity Square.
August 25, 2025 at 1:25 PM
melissa.green
Solidarity with my trans and non-binary friends on this evening that I have to sadly decline a RSVP to a friends' wedding in the US, citing current hostility towards trans people there. Like, they get it, but it makes me feel shit every time I think about it.
A trans flag flowing in the breeze at a protest.
August 11, 2025 at 11:04 PM
melissa.green
Earlier, @gatesheadgreens.bsky.social went on a litter pick of Coatsworth Road in Gateshead. Our efforts were greatly appreciated by some business owners and members of the public, who thanked us and even handed us some water bottles so we could stay hydrated. Now that's community spirit. 💚
From left to right: Ruth, Rachel, Melissa, Richard, Joe and Campbell with litter picks and blue bin bags pose together for a photo opportunity before heading out. From left to right: Joe, Melissa, Rachel, Ruth and Campbell pose around nine full blue bin bags and some cardboard. They're all smiling!
August 10, 2025 at 9:20 PM
melissa.green
👀 Fly tipping spotted.
👮‍♀️ Fly tipping reported.
💚 I’ll keep you up to date with what the council does if they provide updates.

Promoted by Pam Woolner on behalf of The Green Party, c/o PO Box 78066, London SE16 9GQ
A microwave oven in a bush with components exposed. Large items of wood and some metal bits on the grass. est some bushes.
August 10, 2025 at 4:40 PM
melissa.green
I was out earlier with some of the @gatesheadgreens.bsky.social team introducing ourselves to new members of our amazing target ward. We heard plenty from residents, and hope we left a great impression!
Melissa, Joe and Pat from the Gateshead Green Team posing in Village Heights in Gateshead, with plenty of greenery among houses and fences in the background. Tagline of "Promoted by Pam Woolner on behalf of The Green Party, c/o PO Box 78066, London, SE16 9GQ" at the bottom of the image.
August 9, 2025 at 8:50 PM
melissa.green
Hustings and pledges are over and I feel that I can now very much talk about who I voted for in the Green Party Internal Elections.

For leader, I voted for @zackpolanski.bsky.social as I really feel his vision for the Greens going forwards.
A poster from Zack Polanski's leadership campaign, title: I voted for Zack. Zack Polanski. Bold Leadership. Now. promoted and produced by Zack Polanski as part of his campaign for election to the post of Leader. This is not an official communication from the Green Party of England and Wales.
August 9, 2025 at 5:48 PM
melissa.green
I just finished speaking at the Trans Rights Rally in Keel Square Sunderland!

Thank you for listening to my speech about the issues that currently plague all of us trans and non binary folk.
Melissa in white top and black trousers speaking in front of two microphones in Keel Square in Sunderland.
June 14, 2025 at 1:14 PM
melissa.green
On this first day of #pridemonth I re-affirm that no matter where you stand on the #lgbtqia+ spectrum, I will always fight for you. My feminism is intersectional, and I stand by you no matter your race, disability or background.

Happy Pride!

#pride #transrights #transrightsarehumanrights
The various pride flags, from top left to bottom right: the gay flag, in its various shades of green and blue; the rainbow flag, in its classic rainbow colours; the lesbian flag, in its various shades of orange and pink; the bisexual flag, with its pink and blue, split by a purple stripe; the asexual flag, with its black, grey, white and purple colours; the pansexual flag, with the pink, yellow and blue tri-colour; the bigender flag, with various shades of blue, purple, white and pink; the agender flag, with various shades of black/grey/white and a light green stripe; the non-binary flag, with its yellow, white, purple and dark grey colours; the demiboy flag, with its various shades of grey, with blue and white stripes seperating them; the transgender flag, with it's classic blue, pink and white colours; and the demigirl flag, with its various shades of grey, with pink and white stripes seperating them;.
June 1, 2025 at 9:16 PM
melissa.green
I've just sent a letter to my MP @markfergusonmp.bsky.social to outline concerns I have about last week's Supreme Court ruling (and the subsequent discussion in the House of Commons). I know plenty of trans and gender diverse people in Gateshead, and they're pretty angry and scared.
Dear Mark Fergusson MP, Heading: Expression of Concern with Respect to Backsliding of Transgender Equality in the UK My name is Melissa Harker, and I serve as one of the Lead Campaigners for the Bridges ward within the local Gateshead Green Party. Additionally, I hold the roles of Secretary and Elections Officer for the North East Young Greens, as well as Digital Communications Officer for the national LGBTIQA+ Greens. Professionally, I work as a Software Developer for a remote-first B Corporation that enables individuals to lease electric vehicles through salary sacrifice schemes. Most importantly - and particularly relevant to the purpose of this letter - I am a transgender woman. I, like many, watched in horror yesterday as the House of Commons debated the recent Supreme Court ruling. I watched in horror as your colleague, Bridget Phillipson MP, instead of using her time to address parliament and put trans people at ease, instead chose to dedicate the time to political points scoring with the Leader of the Opposition on the other side of the benches. I watched as your colleague refused to reaffirm your manifesto promises to allow trans people to live and exist in dignity, especially after she earlier made a comment stating that myself and other people like me must use toilets that align with our gender assigned at birth (or "biological sex" as she put it). I'm sure you are aware of your party’s record during the previous government. One key piece of legislation is the Equality Act 2010 (hereby referred to as the EA2010). The EA2010 enshrined in law that the definition of "woman" was inclusive of trans people. This has been made clear by civil servants that drafted the legislation, as well as something that is easily looked up on Hansard, if you wish. It's disheartening to hear that, despite repeatedly praising the EA2010 as a groundbreaking piece of legislation that she and her government are proud to have implemented, your colleague made no commitment to restoring the original intent behind the definition of "woman" in the Act. I watched in horror as Bridget mentioned that the EHRC will be issuing updated guidance, subsequent to stating that nothing about the EA2010 has changed at all in the wake of the ruling. If the EA2010 has not changed, why are the EHRC needing to issue new guidance? Something doesn't feel right here. I worry that myself and others in the trans community are going to be gaslit. Much Government messaging recently has followed the lines of: "You should have never been able to have gained access to single-sex spaces, nothing has changed". This is despite two decades of evidence of us safely accessing and using these spaces in accordance with our acquired sex without any issue or challenge, oftentimes from businesses and service providers with extensive legal teams, who could have made the case that we can not access single-sex spaces if they saw such provision in law. It's also not sufficient to say that we're protected by equalities law, especially considering that the way the Supreme Court judgement has muddied the waters. I am thankful that I get to work from home, but if I had to go to an office with my colleagues, and I was told I had to use the men's bathrooms despite being out as a woman and using women's bathrooms for a long time without issue, would this not be discrimination on grounds of me being transgender, especially considering this company only knows I am transgender because I have been transitioning from the start while working there? There were many questions asked by both sides of the House focusing on the impact of the trans community. Your colleague, The Women and Equalities Minister, talked about how the ruling gave "clarity" while consistently not giving a straight-forward answer to questions about what spaces that us trans people should use. It is obvious to see the contradiction here. I'm additionally very concerned by discussions of “solutions”; many of the solutions proposed basically segregate us from the rest of the population. These solutions would "other" us, and as a Lib Dem MP put it quite well, would "ghettoise" us into existing as a third, very distinct sex with segregated facilities and services. If we are forced into using third-sex facilities and services, I see many issues, namely that of provision: will many businesses provide a third set of toilets, and if so, would the provision be any good? If we needed third-sex domestic abuse shelters or NHS wards, how can we ensure that the provision given to us matches that of our cisgender counterparts? You can see where this quickly gets humiliating and demeaning for people such as ourselves. Anyone with a surface level knowledge of the Civil Rights campaign in the US during the 1950s should know the inherent danger in the phrase “separate but equal”. Mark, I need you to realise that you and your colleagues have a unique position here: you are the ones that can end the fear and uncertainty that this ruling brings. My trans siblings are terrified of what happens next, and they remain this way all the time that there is no clarity or leadership on this from you or your party. You and your party can end the terror that is felt in the trans community by doing one simple action: restoring the status quo. We've legally used the facilities of our acquired sex for decades now, and suddenly being thrust back into a position whereby we need to use facilities that cater to people that are not our gender feels completely out of the question. I can not tell you the fear that I feel in thinking that I, as a woman, may be forced to use the mens toilets, especially on something like a night out, where drunk cis men who may be opportunists may, at best, undress me with their eyes, or at worst... it doesn't bear thinking about. I expect to hear back from yourself as to what you and your government intends to do to fulfill the promises made to trans people in your manifesto, the manifesto promises in which some trans people I believe regrettably voted you in on, thinking that perhaps maybe you'd actually be good for them and their friends. Yours sincerely,

 Melissa Harker (she/they) Constituent, Gateshead Central & Whickham
April 23, 2025 at 5:08 PM
melissa.green
Unsurprising to see JK Rowling posted this. Ace folk are absolutely oppressed.

Almost half of ace people surveyed in 2015 (43.5%) report being victim of sexual violence. Notably, 35.4% reported being subject to non consensual sexual contact, and 18.5% were coerced into sexual contact by partners.
A tweet from JK Rowling that reads: Happy International Fake Oppression Day to everyone who wants complete strangers to know they don't fancy a shag. This tweet was accompanied by a photo from Switchboard (a LGBTQ+ support charity) that reads: International Asexuality Day April 6th Asexuality is where a person experiences little to no sexual attraction. Asexual people can form deep emotional connections & relationships but don’t experience sexual attraction in the same way as others. The tweet has 2.3 million views.
April 7, 2025 at 6:40 AM
melissa.green
Today @gatesheadgreens.bsky.social members were out supporting a litter pick in the city centre!
Four people standing with litter pickers surrounding many black bags of which a good deal of those bags are full. From right to left: Mel, Rachel, Claire & Pat
April 5, 2025 at 4:48 PM
melissa.green
Happy Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week!

There is, like with asexuality and agenderism, plenty of different ways that someone can be on the spectrum of Aromanticism.

I think given awareness is always needed, I thought I'd make a thread explaining some ways someone can identify as aromantic. 🧵
The Aromantic flag, the colours of which, from top to bottom: green, light green, white, grey and finally, black.
February 17, 2025 at 2:09 PM
melissa.green
Traumatic? I hope Wes is talking about the experiences the children had gone through, as opposed to the experiences parents had abusing their children. Hope these kids manage to grow up happy and manage to transition, and when their parents are old and need help they're reminded of what they did.
Screenshot of the article that reads: "Parents in the group were also engaged in anti-trans conversion practices on their children, as detailed in their private online forum. Some went as far as describing sending their children to non-affirming therapists, cutting them off from supportive friends and teachers, removing their internet access and destroying their gender-affirming medications, clothing and pride flags."
February 1, 2025 at 11:30 AM