Delia believes the FA in particular has done heaps for trans athletes – but more needs to be done overall (Picture: Delia Johnston)

Delia Johnston, 60, from Milton Keynes, was a divorced father of two when she began transitioning in 2010.

After years struggling with her sense of self she made the decision to become a woman – but her transition was not an easy one.

Her choice contributed to the breakdown of her marriage and put a strain on her family.

Now, five years on, she has finally found her feet as a female.


Delia has found confidence, peace, a job fighting for the rights of the transgender community – and a new relationship too.

She now works as specialist diversity consultant for Trans In Sport, Northamptonshire Police and England Netball, fighting for the rights of the transgender community.



Metro.co.uk spoke to her about her journey to womanhood and pursuit of acceptance.

She says:

‘I was very close to both of my children pre-transition.

‘When I sat down with my son in November 2009 to try and tell him what I thought was going to happen, to my total surprise, after taking some time to think things through, he become very supportive.

‘This was very sadly was not reflected by my daughter.

‘I have not really seen her or spoken to her since October 2009. I don’t blame her at all, after all, it was me that “wrecked” her life and her view of me.’

She says her transition was not an easy one. ‘I was abused physically and verbally in my early days,’ she says (Picture: Delia Johnston)

On her marriage and family

Delia’s transition was ‘unbelievably hard’ for both her immediate and extended family.

‘On the whole the extended family have been very supportive and been right behind me,’ she says, ‘even if sometimes my actions leave some of them a bit speechless. This is never easy for one’s closest people. Yes, I have lost some family members along the way, but that is not surprising.’

Delia divorced from her wife and the mother of her children in 2008.

‘My future decision to transition was not the main reason for the divorce, but it contributed to the marriage breakdown,’ she says, adding she and her wife were ‘drifting apart for all sorts of reasons.’

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‘That all said, I sort of knew that I was going to transition sooner rather later, as the lifetime awareness was becoming increasingly difficult to suppress.

‘I knew something was wrong all my life, but was not sure of the path I needed to take until and around the divorce.

‘The moment I changed my thinking was at Glastonbury in 2009. It was something about all of the different expressions of individuality that made me aware of what was holding me back – my own fears, about the risks and the possible losses to come.

‘There is a very quiet and spiritual area of the festival where one day I found myself alone with my thoughts and “at peace” with the world. I knew 100% that this move to becoming Delia would now start and there would be no going back. It was a Pandora’s Box moment.’



Delia says she waited until her youngest child was over 18 before starting to think about her own personal happiness.

‘I formally began transition on January 1, 2010 at five minutes past midnight while everyone else was partying around me. I mentally moved to becoming Delia in all aspects of life to come.

On her professional life

Before her transition Delia ran her own digital television company, but around the end of 2009 that business ran out of steam.

‘What was wonderful was that all of my LinkedIn contacts – without exception – swapped over to my new profile, which I found both surprising and wonderful,’ she says.

‘I just wish the rest of society was that accepting.’

On declaring as transexual

Now, Delia says that as far as she is concerned, her journey has ended.

‘I declare as transsexual,’ she says. ‘I’ve had surgery. I have a gender recognition certificate. If someone asks me if I am trans, the answer is: “Yes. I have an interesting gender history”.’

Delia says that her transition was subject to all sort of issues and problems, including ‘viciousness’ from society.

‘I now feel comfortable,’ she says. ‘But at the time [during my early days of transitioning] it was pretty horrible. My self confidence and self-esteem was pretty low, and I was convinced society was against me.

‘I was abused physically and verbally in my early days,’ she says. ‘You harden up after a while.’

On transgender in the media

Delia says the ‘fear of the unknown’ when transitioning is not helped by the media.

She mentions as an example the way that sexual identity is called out and ‘sensationalised’ in association with a news story.


‘Somebody could be accused of shoplifting and the headline will say “transgender criminal”. Oh no! Not another transsexual!’

On changing rooms

The thorny issue of changing rooms, and particularly which one to use, is an issue that troubled Delia at first too.

It took her a while to make the move into the women’s changing rooms. ‘In my early days it was always an issue of confidence,’ she says.

‘Where I am now, when it comes to changing rooms I’m female – end of.

‘It’s like me saying to you: “As a female, what’s it like going to a male changing room?”

She admits that the transition and learning to live as a woman takes time.

After a while though, Delia says she began to ‘get on with life and blend in’.

Delia now works as specialist diversity consultant for Trans In Sport, Northamptonshire Police and England Netball (Picture: Delia Johnston/Metro.co.uk)

‘I am unbelievably fortunate,’ she says. ‘I worked for London 2012 for a year… I’ve met celebrities, politicians and sports stars. I met some other super-tall women – the British women’s rowing team are mostly 6ft plus.

‘I even remember chatting to one female taller than me!’

There have been mishaps along the way, of course – but Delia says that comes with being tall, not just transsexual.

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‘I occasionally get called “Sir”;’ she says. ‘Tall women in general get mislabelled. In my early days, understanding that was difficult.

‘I’d be standing in the queue at a railway station and someone would say “Can I help you, Sir?”

‘To be honest with you, I knew there was going to be a problem [with getting mislabelled], so I avoided those situations.


On using women’s loos

‘When I first started transitioning I was on a trip with some women and we stopped at service station.

‘They all dashed into ladies; I didn’t. I said “I don’t need the toilet”. I avoided public toilets at that stage. It goes back to the issue of being self-confident.

‘People stare at you as if you’d walked into the toilet with a missing limb.

‘The same happened in clothes shops. I would buy clothes, try them on at home and take them back. I avoided the confrontation.

Trans people have to grow accustomed that others will look at them differently, she says. ‘But, over time your confidence grows. Once I got my head round the idea that people will always stare, I didn’t have a problem with it.

‘People will look at me. I’m 6ft 2in, long hair, long legs. They think I’m interesting,’ she says.

On which changing room to choose…

Delia has always been sporty, but transitioning posed problems for this area of her life too.

‘I play a lot of badminton. When I started transitioning, I was getting involved in my local gym. The NHS demand you keep yourself fit and healthy [if you are transitioning]. But how the hell can you do that if a gym is against you? It’s a Catch 22.

‘In the gym I used the disabled access changing room all the time, and I didn’t go walking around naked,’ she says.

‘Unless you’re looking for confrontation, you just have to be sensible. If you look and behave with confidence and you don’t scare the living daylights out of people, you’ll be okay.

‘If you go in like rabbit in headlights, you’ll be picked on.’

Delia says communal changing rooms posed the greatest problem.

‘In shops to try on clothes you go into cubicles – but in sports facilities on the whole, changing rooms are communal, and that was difficult. I would quickly learn the layout of a changing room.

The changing room challenge is not one that is unique to Delia.

An American study found that while how one identifies is sufficient in the workplace, people are more likely to believe that biology determines gender in sex-segregated spaces like bathrooms, locker rooms, and sports teams.

Delia argues that physically, you change greatly, quickly, once you start taking female hormones (Picture: Delia Johnston/Metro.co.uk)

On ‘gender panic’

Grand Valley State University professor Laurel Westbrook says these spaces are ‘at the centre of gender panics’.

‘…because of beliefs that women are inherently vulnerable, particularly to unwanted heterosexual advances, it is women’s spaces at the centre of these debates.

‘Thus, with these controversies, much of the discussion is about a fear of “male” bodies in “women’s” spaces.’

Laurel has said as a result of these fears, transgender rights policies are often discarded or altered in ways that force transgender people to conform to normative ideas of gendered bodies in order to access public facilities and activities that fit their identities.

On being transgender in sport

Another hot topic that surrounds transgender people in sport is the issue of gender categorisation – something which Delia feels strongly about: At what point is it fair for a man who has transitioned into woman to play for the women’s team, and vice versa?

According to their 2003 rules the IOC [International Olympic Committee] says you need to be on two years of medical hormones before you can play on the team of your assigned gender – something Delia believes is the wrong approach.

‘I think those rules are stupid,’ she says. ‘The requirements are extremely demanding and not all individuals can achieve what is required in time. By then, they may have passed their peak in terms of performance.’

Delia argues that physically, you change greatly, quickly, once you start taking female hormones.

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‘When I play badminton now, my mind says I can do that shot but my body says, “in your dreams”.

‘I believe sport is so important. It helps you socially physically and mentally,’ she says. ‘Sports UK and Sports England have now rolled out new guidance. They’ve issued a Transsexual Inclusion In Sport document for domestic, national and international competitions.

‘But there’s not enough actual sports governing bodies implementing changes and policy review in light of this.

‘More still needs to be done. I’m not letting them get off lightly!’

On the ‘trans-friendly’ FA

As Delia says, some bodies deserve credit where it’s due. Namely, the English Football Association, or The FA.

Delia worked for the organisation despite, she says, having been told they were ‘homophobic’.

Undeterred, she went in and examined the structure of the organisation from a transgender perspective, and found The FA to be the most inclusive of all sports organisations she’d come across – and in fact, the most instrumental in getting transsexuals involved in football.

‘A female to male person wants to do what any other male does – which may include playing football,’ she says. ‘The FA has been the most pro-active and reactive in their inclusion of trans people within football.

‘There are, incredibly, many new transsexuals participating in various levels of football this year.’

Delia believes that if we keep this conversation going, even more trans athletes can step out in the field much sooner.

‘Looking back over the last five and a half years, who would have thought that I would achieve so much after going through so much, that I would help so many, and most importantly, that I would have so much fun?’ she says.

‘After the formal start of my transition I promised myself that I would help as many other transgender people as I could.

‘I helped many individuals and organisations until I was headhunted into London 2012, where my love of sport was found.’

On her children – and acceptance

In terms of her personal happiness, Delia is grateful for the acceptance she has.

‘My relationship with my son now has found what I believe is a good balance and we are there to help and support each other. I can’t ask for more from one of my children.

‘I’m not sure what the future holds for my relationship with my daughter.

‘I always live in hope, but I will never force contact.

‘It has to come from her as and when she is ready.’

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