Transgender woman to start new life in Brighton after abuse

Brooke Olsen, 23, who lives in Peterhead, came out as transgender on Facebook two years ago.

At the end of last year she featured on the BBC Three documentary Tyger Takes On: How Straight Am I?, a show which explored the effects of sexuality on young adults.

But the young woman has been subjected to abuse and even physically assaulted in the north-east fishing town because of her appearance and now wants to leave Scotland and move to Brighton.

She said: “Living in Peterhead can be difficult at times. I feel that sometimes the people accept me the way I am and other times they don’t accept me at all.

“Verbal abuse is quite common and in the past I was physically abused which was scary.

“I was attacked from behind and knocked on the back of the head.”

The young woman has gone through quite a transformation since she came out online two years ago but has no plans for sex reassignment surgery.

However, she wants to get her Adam’s apple shaved and have breast augmentation.

It was clearly documented in the TV show how hard it was for the cleaner to cope with the abuse she gets from other women.

When she was accompanied on a night out in Peterhead with TV presenter Tyger Drew-Honey, she was called a “weirdo” by another reveller.

And this year she found herself called a “he/she” by another woman after Brooke was told at a party that she was the prettiest girl in the house.

She added: “In the programme I was quite aggressive and used to react when anyone shouted at me and lost my temper quickly, but since then I have calmed down.

“Coming out as a transgender person was very difficult and at first I thought I was gay because I liked men, however, I was actually a woman stuck in a man’s body.

“My mum accepted my decision to come out, however my dad was a former professional boxer and didn’t take the news well at all.

“After having some complications at home I decided to move out and become homeless.”

Brooke hopes setting up home in Brighton, where people are more accepting of the transgender community.

At the moment she suffers from anxiety and stays at home most of the time.

She added: “I don’t go clubbing much any more because of my anxiety, but I feel if I live in Brighton I might be less anxious.

“I am very active online and very confident, so many people when they see me think I can take some of the things they say to me.

“However, I am really different in person - and I’m quite insecure really.”