At her lowest ebb, Stephanie described how she reached a point in her life where she felt as though her only two options were \u201ctransition or death\u201d. \u00a0Speaking about the fear she felt when it came to taking the leap and deciding to transition she said: \u201cI was absolutely terrified. I was scared about how my friends and family would react, and the impact it would have on my career and everything that I had worked for\u201d.<\/p>\n
Luckily for Stephanie, her friends, family and radio listeners were very supportive and the response she received from the public was overwhelmingly positive. Last year she was awarded an honorary Doctorate from Leeds Beckett University and included in the Rainbow List 2014 – an annual celebration of the 101 lesbian, bisexual, gay, and transgender people in the UK who make a real difference.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people find it difficult to understand, but for me, transitioning from a man to a woman was not a lifestyle choice, I had to do it. Sometimes it can end tragically for people and I was determined to not let that happen to me. The best way I can describe it is, before, my life was in black and white but now everything is in colour\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, Stephanie hopes to encourage people to celebrate their differences and not be afraid to be themselves. She said: \u201cWe want to encourage people to speak out. People might feel different but that’s fine, it’s good to be different. Difference should be celebrated. We are who we are and we all need to embrace and accept one another for who each other is.”<\/p>\n
The event was organised by Sian Pett who works for the college’s student services, and runs an LGBT group at the college. She explained: “As far as I know, there are no other LGBT communities for under 18s in North East Lincolnshire. We meet up weekly as a group and aim to make Franklin College a safe place for students.<\/p>\n
\n <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Friday 17th February, Radio presenter and transgender icon Stephanie Hirst delivered a guest talk at Franklin Colleges second pride event. Stephanie spoke to students, teachers and members of the public about her journey to self acceptance and the importance of celebrating people’s differences. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"xn-wppe-expiration":[],"xn-wppe-expiration-action":[],"xn-wppe-expiration-prefix":[],"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[10,369,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3cThd-3zL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13749"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13749"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13753,"href":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13749\/revisions\/13753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"PRIDE\"](\"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/PRIDE.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n