My name is Joseph Simpson, and I am a transgender gay man from South Wales. I came out as transgender when I was seventeen, slowly to my friends, then my family then publicly. I started to realise I was “different” when I was very young. I remember asking my friend to call me a boy in the playground when I was 6, and him reporting to a dinner lady that I’d said this, and me being shamed for it, I was embarrassed and couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t do what I asked. I guess you could say I had a stereotypical “Tom boy” upbringing, there was a lot of pressure on me to wear stereotypically female clothing, which made me very uncomfortable and didn’t sit right with me at all. As I grew older, I started to learn about transgender people, and as soon as I started to watch trans men on YouTube, I realised finally, something fit me, I was a man, born with not quite the right body for me. After coming out to my family, and living as male, I felt far more comfortable and confident in myself, I finally felt I had found my true self after hiding it for so long. Almost a year ago today, I managed to raise funds to access hormones privately. I had been referred to the NHS gender clinic when I was 18. I was so excited to finally start my journey and life on hormones. However, I was let down every time I tried to check on my progress, the doctors had “lost my referral” or “hadn’t taken enough information”. I had undergone three sessions of very intense and uncomfortable psychotherapy, asking lots of invasive questions to determine wether I was “trans enough” to be referred. I had to undergo this process of psychotherapy three times, as each time they seemed to lose my files, or had no record of them. Naturally, I was frustrated, as the gender clinic list can take anywhere between 3-5 years, so every time I thought I was referred, I was being set back. Around two months ago, I received a letter to say I was finally on the Welsh GIC list. This would mean a few initial assessments before even being considered for top surgery. I feel so lucky and blessed to be able to access hormones. However, I have been binding for a total of seven years at this point. Binding is an act of binding ones chest safely, to flatten ones chest and give the appearance or reduction of chest presence, it helps trans and non binary people to feel more comfortable. This has caused me a permanent rib bruise and pain, every single day I have to bind to “pass” as male, and it is extremely painful and restricts my breathing greatly. It meant I had to stop my sports groups, some social activities and impacts my daily life immensely. This is the reason I have made a fundraiser for my top surgery. I intend to put as much of my own money into this as possible, but for now I need your help. I will be creating some art prints as a thank you to those who are able to donate, or alternatively people will be able to purchase these prints of which the profits will go directly to my top surgery fund raiser.

Thank you so much for your time reading this and reading my story.