Today I was off to Bristol again, for a rather special meeting. Mary the Producer from Shout Out had asked me to help with an interview that she was recording for broadcast later in the year. The interview subject was Livvy James, an 11-year-old trans girl who has become a bit of a media celebrity in the UK, and who I have written about before. I wasn’t there to ask questions, or indeed speak much. Mary is a very capable interviewer. But I guess my presence would have helped reassure Livvy and her mum, Saffy, that the show was trans-friendly, and also if any issues came up about the wider trans community I could offer expertise that Mary doesn’t have.

Although Livvy and Saffy have been in great demand in the media since they hit the headlines last year, we were the first LGBT show they had ever been on. As such, we provided them an opportunity to set the record straight in a number of ways. For example, Livvy didn’t suddenly decide to become female last year. As with many trans people, she had known from a very early age that her body and identity didn’t match. She’d been living as a girl at home since the age of 7, and only pretending to be a boy when she had to leave the house. Livvy and her family never had any intention of becoming media celebrities. They were outed to the press by the parents of other children at Livvy’s school, and have been dealing with the fallout from that ever since. They have never asked for payment for a media appearance.

Listening to the interview, I was struck by how similar Livvy’s experience was to my own, and yet how different. When she talked about hating having to wear boy’s clothes, about wanting to play with toys that are deemed “for girls”, or about her fear of puberty, that could easily have been me. And yet here she was, living as a girl, with a wonderfully supportive family, and with a promise of medical intervention when she needs it to save her from the ravages of testosterone.

I can’t blame my parents for this. When I was Livvy’s age, hardly anyone in the UK had heard of trans people. It wasn’t until the April Ashley divorce case hit the headlines in 1970 that I even had a word to describe what was wrong with me. Had I acted on that knowledge, the medical profession would probably have told my parents that I needed to be sent to an asylum so that I could be “cured”. And because they would have wanted the best for me, they would have agreed. The world is very different now.

Meeting Livvy, I can’t imagine how anyone who encounters her can fail to see how happy and comfortable she is as a girl. She’s every inch the “little princess” that parents dream of. But she’s also incredibly brave, determined and selfless. She and Saffy talked about how they saw their unfortunate outing and subsequent notoriety as a gift that enabled them to talk to a wider audience and help other families in the same situation. Of course, like all other representatives of minorities who finds themselves in the public eye, Livvy and Saffy tire of the constant need to explain to the clueless. One day soon, I hope, they will be able to retire gracefully and let someone else carry the load. But in the meantime they are amazing ambassadors for the trans community, and we are very lucky to have them.

I don’t know, as yet, when the interview will be broadcast, and the end result will only be about 15 minutes of the hour plus we spent talking, but I will let you know when it is online. And Mary, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to meet such wonderful people.