Kaan K (previously Yas Necati) is up for adventure and experimentation.

At the moment, they are particularly interested in:

• How the policing of gender and policing of borders intersect
• Finding joy and community amongst all the shit
• Performing drag strip teases involving carabiners
• Running creative writing and visioning workshops
• How we can centre transformative justice in our responses to domestic abuse, stalking and “safeguarding”

Kaan’s performances combine poetry and drag to ask questions about gender, diaspora identity, belonging and what it means to know home.

​Kaan wrote a monthly column about gender for gal-dem, “Against the binary.” They were a journalist at the Independent and now write freelance.

​They volunteered and worked for many years in the domestic and sexual abuse sectors, including managing a Rape Crisis helpline. Kaan is a Paladin-trained ISAC (Independent Stalking Advocate Caseworker) and also a domestic abuse caseworker for young people and adults. They were part of a pilot project that introduced domestic abuse support workers in NHS hospitals, and have worked alongside NHS staff on supporting survivors. They co-organised the UK’s first union for VAWG sector workers.

Starting out as a teenage campaigner, in 2013 Kaan successfully petitioned then Education Secretary Michael Gove to update the guidelines for the UK’s Sex and Relationships Education curriculum. They co-founded Campaign4Consent, were part of the core team on the No More Page 3 campaign and supported Laura Bates to launch #PassItOn, a project to get young people talking about healthy relationships. In 2014, alongside Pavan Amara, they co-founded My Body Back, a project supporting sexual and domestic abuse survivors to reclaim their bodies after abuse.

In 2013, they were chosen as the UK’s “best hope for the future” in the Guardian Women’s Awards*, In 2014, they were awarded as one of the BBC’s 100 women* and in 2015,  before working at The Independent, Kaan was featured on their annual Rainbow List as “one to watch”. 

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*Kaan identifies as trans non binary. At the time of receiving anything related to “women”, they hadn’t come out as non binary yet