Can you explain the process of
how Channel 4 initially
approached you?
anyone else transgender before and
I was really excited to meet other
people in my position and really
nervous because I knew cameras
I made video blogs on YouTube ever were going to be on us. Straight
since I first started my transition to away me and Drew just clicked
see how I changed. Twenty Twenty, because I think she’s my age and
the production company, found me she’s a Northerner and we just had
on YouTube and emailed saying 'we loads in common. That would have
found your videos and we think
never happened if it wasn’t for the
you’d be good for this programme.
show.
Can we give you a call?' They came
round to film an audition tape then I find it interesting that the
rung me up saying “we’d like you to representation of trans people
be part of the show”.
in the show was so varied from people only weeks into
During the show you lived in a their transition, and others
house with all the other trans
who were years into theirs.
people? How was it meeting
everyone?
Yes, we were all at different stages
in our transition. At the time I
Yes, it was a big massive house in
hadn’t had my chest surgery. The
Bedford and we stayed there every
show helped me raise the money as
other weekend during the summer. St. Helen’s wouldn’t fu nd the chest
That was really fun. I’d never met
surgery saying it wasn’t part of the
gender reassignment process, which
is ridiculous. Within the time that
the show was filmed people really
transformed.
What was the general reaction
from the public?
I was a bit worried and almost
dropped out of the show at the last
minute because I didn’t want to
reveal to everyone that I was
transgender. I felt it was something
to be ashamed of and I was
embarrassed by it, but I literally
didn’t get a single negative reaction.
The most unlikely people in St.
Helen’s, like the chavs, were
shouting at me saying ‘oh, it’s that
guy off the telly! Well done!’. In
terms of transitioning, some people
don’t even want to be classed as
male or female and would rather be
called “genderqueer”. Personally I
43
THEGAYUK FEB/MARCH
Lewis Hancox, a 24 year old Digital Film and
Video student tells Matt Peake about what it
was like to appear in Channel 4’s My
Transsexual Summer, his plans for the
future and about the love of his life, Sophie.
2014
INTERVIEW