Suzy Izzard says she knew she was trans at the age of five
Suzy Eddie Izzard has revealed that she knew she was trans at the age of five (Getty Images)
Comedian and actor Suzy Izzard – also known as Eddie – has revealed that she knew she was trans at the age of five.
Speaking to Steve Denyer on Virgin Radio’s June pop-up station Virgin Radio Pride, the screen and stage actor spoke about living as a trans woman, emphasising that she knew she identified as such as early as 1967.
“I was five when I knew I was trans,” Izzard said. “I loved playing football and I was very scrappy in school so no one said: ‘You must be trans’. Kids are braver these days, I wasn’t at that point.”
Izzard, whose mother passed away when she was six, went on to speak about her decision to come out to her father at the same time she did so publicly, in 1985.
“I wasn’t going to live a lie,” she said. “You never know how your parents will react, I’ve heard some horror stories. My dad said if mum was alive, she would had been OK about it. That was a nice thing to say.
“Some people and press were bemused, especially as I wore trousers at that point. So I thought: ‘I’ll throw on some makeup and a dress’. They still called me a mess, so I said, ‘OK, I’ve gotta work on that’.”
Later in the interview, Denyer asked whether acceptance for LGBTQ+ people had come a long way since Izzard’s childhood, to which she replied: “When I came out in 85, there were no conversations about being trans. I was considered a non-person. I realised the conversations had to start.
“I believe in the future, and hope we’ll get to a place where we will say women’s rights are human rights and trans rights are human rights. End of story.”
The Doctor Jekyll star, who put her name forward to be the Labour candidate for Brighton Pavilion at the upcoming general election, after current MP – the Green Party’s Caroline Lucas – announced that she would not be standing again.
Izzard, who was not selected as the parliamentary candidate, recently suggested that being a trans woman negatively affected her chances of becoming an MP.
“If you’re transphobic, getting a trans MP is not what you want,” she told The Times.
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