Jamie Wallis.Photo: JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty
A British lawmaker’s personal story of stigma, mental health struggles and gender dysphoria spread widely this week after the representative — Jamie Wallis —issued a lengthy statementWednesday announcing he is transgender and will be embracing his identity after years of silence.
Wallisadded in a follow-up statementthat he will “continue to present as I always have and will use he/him/his pronouns.”
In the statement, shared to Twitter and captioned, “It’s time,” the 37-year-old Wallis, a member of the Conservative Party in the British Parliament, opened up about how he “wants to be” trans but had no intention of publicly sharing that until a series of harrowing incidents helped show him “how important it is to be yourself.”
“I’m trans. Or to be more accurate, I want to be,” Wallis said in the statement. “I’ve been diagnosed with gender dysphoria and I’ve felt this way since I was a very young child. I had no intention of ever sharing this with you. I always imagined I would leave politics well before I ever said this out loud.”
Noting that the police “were so supportive, so understanding,” Wallis wrote that the “system worked,” with the person — who was unnamed — pleading guilty and being sentenced to more than two years in prison.
For a while, Wallis said in the statement, everything seemed okay. Until it wasn’t.
“A few months back, in September, I ‘hooked up’ with someone who I met online and when I chose to say ‘no’ on the basis that he wouldn’t wear a condom he chose to rape me,” the statement continued. “I have not been myself since this incident and I don’t think I will ever recover. It is not something you ever forget, and it is not something you ever move on from.”
Then came Nov. 28, when as Wallis described, he crashed his car and “fled the scene.”
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This week, following a dinner with members of his party, Wallis said he was “reminded of the incredible support those you work with can provide.”
He continued: “Also, I was reminded how important it is to be yourself. I have never lived my truth and I’m not sure how. Perhaps it starts with telling everyone.”
Wallis' story has been met with much support at a time when the government’s approach to transgender rightsis being debated.
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a conservative colleague, who shared the statement on Twitter, adding that telling “this very intimate story would have taken an immense amount of courage.”
Thank you @JamieWallisMP for your bravery, which will undoubtedly support others. The Conservative Party I lead will always give you, and everyone else, the love and support you need to be yourself," Johnson wrote.
source: people.com
