A Tory MP who said he was in a trance last month said he hoped the transition process would begin “as soon as possible” and welcomed the “incredible amount of support” since he left.
Speaking to Sophy Ridge on Sunday, Jamie Wallis, an MP from Bridgend, also described her experiences of rape and extortion.
Mr Wallis acknowledged that the transition process would be “challenging and difficult” with “many obstacles”, saying: “It will not happen overnight, it will take many, many years”.
But he added: “I think now that I’m out and people know I’m free to start this and actually continue this journey at a pace I find comfortable.”
“Maybe there was a terrible mistake.”
Asked why he felt she was a woman, Mr Wallis said: “I have sexual dysphoria … this is the medical diagnosis required for legal gender reassignment, but it is also a condition that describes a lack of reconciliation between how you look. and what your body says and how you feel inside. “
Image: Jamie Wallis is an MP from Bridgend. Photo: British Parliament
Mr Wallis, who said he and he still preferred the pronouns at the moment, said he had felt this way for “a very long time”.
“I was eight years old when I was trying to figure out what it was … because I didn’t have ready access to the internet and there was no one else in my community at home who felt that way or knew anyone around me,” he said.
“So I had absolutely no idea what it was, and I remember being eight and trying to figure out if it was something that only affected me or if there were other people who might feel that way.
“I came to the wrong conclusion. Then I thought it was just me and maybe there was some terrible mistake or something went wrong.”
“It’s stupid to live for other people”
Mr Wallis said he had spent a lot of time trying to hide who he was and “somehow ran away from him” without letting people know how he was feeling.
“I remember being really scared, scared,” he said.
He described the important moment when he realized that he was not alone and that other people were experiencing things like him.
He said he had reached a point in his life when he decided it was “stupid to live for other people”.
“About a year ago, maybe about six or eight months ago, I woke up one day and realized that I wasn’t really ashamed of it anymore.
“It’s me, it’s what I want, and I’ve actually been waiting a long time to feel that way.”
Mr Wallis said his emotional statement on Twitter last month, in which he revealed he was transsexual, was “probably inevitable” after that realization.
Following his statement, Mr Wallis was widely praised for his courage by lawmakers across the political spectrum, including Boris Johnson, who said his message “would require great courage”.
“Part of me died”
In an interview with Sky’s Sophy Ridge, Mr. Wallis was asked what he said in a statement about his experience of rape.
He continued: “I met someone I liked and things started quite well.
“Then I was not good at not being what I consider a responsible and safe practice in the bedroom, so I withdrew my consent and then there was… then he just decided that he would do it anyway and I was powerless to stop him in this a part of me died at that moment and I’ve been trying to get it back ever since. “
Asked if he had managed to regain that part of himself, he replied, “No.”
I tried to forget about it for a few weeks and it almost worked, almost worked, but then you start dreaming nightmares, flashbacks, it starts to occupy your every thought and you just look into the distance because you think about it again and then I chose to get help.
“As I said in my statement, I am not well, I am not the person I was before it happened, but at least I am in a place where I can continue my life while dealing with it.
Mr Wallis spoke about how many people had contacted him since his statement in March to share similar experiences.
He said: “I think what is really scary is that after I said what I said, there were a shocking number of people who contacted me to say that something similar had happened to them and that it changed my whole mindset and made me worry a lot about the potential of it being a much more common problem than I think a lot of people right now think it is. “
Pouring out support after a blackmail test
Also detailed in his March statement on Twitter was his attempt to blackmail him because of his gender identity.
He said: “I was in a very dark place, someone had received this information and there was evidence of this and I was being blackmailed – but the police were fantastic.
“They not only took it seriously, but they were successful, so the CPS, the police, were really good.”
Following the statement, Mr Wallis said he had received “an incredible amount of support”.
Asked what advice he would give to a young man struggling with his gender identity, he said: “I was waiting and many young people at the moment I think are dealing with gender issues and my advice to them would be, you have a long life.
“I wouldn’t wait as long as I waited, I’m 37 – maybe you can move a little faster than that – but there’s really nothing wrong with just taking some time and finding yourself and not feeling hurried to pick up a label or see it in any way.
“But when you know who you are and you are ready and you want to tell the world and confirm it, there are people like me here who are waiting and we are welcome, we are friendly and we are here to help and support.”
Watch the full interview of MP Jamie Wallis in the Sophy Ridge program on Sunday’s Sky News program from 8.30 this morning.
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