Lydia Foy recalls hell of being transgender during childhood and school

Lydia Foy, the woman who led a landmark legal challenge for transgender people, has spoken of the hell she endured from early childhood because of ignorance of her plight.

Ms Foy, 67, said her national school years were very tough, but became worse in secondary school when she was taunted by bullies who glued the pages of her schoolbooks together and destroyed her clothes.

At least two other transgender children were in school with her at the time and also suffered abuse. One did not survive the experience and later died by suicide. She said she almost didn’t survive herself, suffering a major breakdown in adult life when she was married and a father of two, but knew that she could not go on pretending to be a man.