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Happy: Ayla Holdom says she couldn't have hoped for a better reaction from her colleagues |
The UK's first transgender military pilot has spoken out - to praise her colleagues for their "exemplary" attitude towards her transformation.
Ayla Holdom, 34, is a search-and-rescue pilot and a decorated RAF officer, who changed from a man to a woman.
Over a two-year period, she underwent three major operations and several other procedures to achieve a body she felt comfortable with.
Now the transformation is complete, she has come forward to praise the RAF and her co-workers for their "complete acceptance and empathy".
Ayla said: "All my RAF colleagues were brilliant. I think they were surprised because I was pretty adept at pretending to be a man.
"I walked macho, I sat macho, I worked out hard and I like a bit of banter.
"Even old and bold warrant officers who had grown up in the days when people like me would have been taken behind the bike sheds for a kicking, came to congratulate me.
"I can see why someone might think it's been difficult.
"Men go to war, women stay at home and mind the children - that's the traditional military narrative.
"But being transgender in the RAF has been, in some ways, easier than in civilian life.
"The military has a policy and there are rules and what we do is adhere to them. It keeps things simple. Even this.
"I did as little as possible because I wanted to stay operationally fit and healthy, to remain a fully functioning military pilot throughout."
She continued: "But if you are cursed with testosterone and a Y chromosome then you have to do what you need to get yourself out of the door every morning and be accepted as a woman.
"It makes it easier for the world to accept you as a woman if you look like one, even though that shouldn't need to be the case.
"Being transgender is one of the last areas of prejudice.
"It's like race or homosexuality a generation ago and I hope that transgender people can elicit the same change in society today."