Stephanie Hirst to bust misconceptions about trans community in Virgin Radio Pride documentary

Award winning radio presenter and TV personality Stephanie Hirst will aim to bust myths and misconceptions surrounding the trans community in a documentary to be aired on Virgin Radio Pride.

Living Authentically; Trans Truths narrated by Stephanie, will air on the station on tomorrow evening.

41% of trans men and trans women responding to a Stonewall survey said they had experienced a hate crime or incident because of their gender identity in the past 12 months and recorded transgender hate crimes have increased by an astonishing 650%.

This documentary will aim to educate listeners whilst also providing a resource for people who would like to learn more about the lived experiences of those in the trans community.

Living Authentically; Trans Truths will include contributions from radio presenter Paris Munro, Cleo Madeleine from Gendered Intelligence, Virgin Radio Pride’s Shivani Dave and Grey Marlow from Queer Lit book shop in Manchester.

They talk about the most common and harmful misconceptions they’ve encountered while exploring their gender identity. The programme will also hear from members of the public during a live discussion hosted by Mermaids, a children’s trans charity based in Leeds and London.

Stephanie Hirst said: “It’s a true honour to host this documentary for Virgin Radio Pride. It’s vitally important that we all try to educate ourselves from those who have a lived experience, in all walks of life, especially those from the Trans & Non Binary community. It is an incredibly educational listen”

Mike Cass, Content Director at Virgin Radio UK added: “Virgin Radio Pride UK’s mission is to share the biggest stories from the LGBTQ+ community with our listeners and Living Authentically; Trans Truths does just that.

“I’m delighted we are partnering with This Is Distorted again to help bust the myths and misconceptions around the trans community and with the brilliant Stephanie Hirst narrating this fascinating documentary, it is a must listen this summer.”

You can listen to Living Authentically; Trans Truths at 6pm on Tuesday 16 August on Virgin Radio Pride UK.