A World War Two veteran has come out as transgender at the age of 90.
Patricia Davies, formerly known as Peter, said she was always ‘living a lie’ and came out to doctors last year.
The soldier said she knew she was a woman since the age of three. However, she kept it a secret and married a woman in the hope of leading a ‘normal’ life.
Patricia was married for 63 years but confessed her true feelings to her wife in 1987. Patricia said her wife was very accepting, helping her buy clothes, give her advice and “stood by me in every way.”
The couple decided to keep it a secret for fear of people’s reactions, but after the death of her wife six years ago, Patricia told doctors and began taking female hormones.
Speaking to Good Morning Britain on Transgender Day of Visibility, she said, “I went through life always wanting to be a female, how do I come out in the army, I would have been classified as homosexual and that meant you were shoved in the clink.”
“Within six to eight weeks of coming out the army I got married, naïvely I suppose. I thought that if I got married all my problems of wanting to be a woman would go away and I’d be cured.”
“I was always living a lie, dressing up as a female in secret.”
“I am me, what you see is what you get and this is what you get.”
“If people object, I’m sorry for them.”
“There was always the danger that if someone found out something awful might happen.”
“No one understood the word transgender in those days so you were on dangerous ground.”
Patricia said she is slowly coming out to neighbours and has joined the Women’s Institute. She said, “I have been keeping quiet. I have slowly started to tell some of my neighbours. Everybody said ‘don’t worry, as long as you’re happy.”
“The best thing about coming out is being accepted as a woman.”
“That has been something I’ve wanted all of my life.”
