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The woman who became the first officer in the British army to transition from a man to a woman has made a Channel 4 documentary about the controversial ‘bathroom bill‘ in North Carolina.

Abigail Austen, 51, made Liverpool her home and said the city is the most tolerant she has ever lived in. A former member of the British army, Abi served with NATO alongside the United States Army in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, for three years.

Now Abi has made a film about North Carolina’s House Bill 2 - more commonly known as the ‘bathroom bill’. Introduced in March this year, the controversial law forces everyone to use public bathrooms according to their birth certificate, meaning that trans women like Abi would have no choice but to use the men’s toilet in public places.

Abi headed to the place where it all started - North Carolina. For her the journey behind the documentary wasn’t just political - it was also deeply personal.

Speaking to the ECHO, Woolton resident Abi said: “My big thing is different strokes for different folks - just do your own thing.

“As long as it’s legal and you’re not hurting anybody what difference does it make? So what I do is I take this issue, which is close to my heart, but in the context of the United States.

“It’s obviously quite close to my heart because I worked with the American army for so long. I’ve lived in America and I’ve got family over there - it meant a lot to me.

As part of the filming Abi tried to challenge some of the people who came up with the bathroom bill. This involved going into the North Carolina state legislature where the police ordered her to use the men’s toilet and proceeded to escort her to the men’s room - an experience she fouund incredibly difficult.

Abi said: “The kicker is that after the legislature I decided not to tell people about me because these people have threatened violence against folks like me.

“So I go and meet them with them knowing that I’m coming but they don’t know anything about me.

“So you spend a lot of time in the film going, ‘God are they going to twig?’ and then, ‘God are the going to punch me?’ So it gets quite physically threatening in places.”

Abi found the filming process incredibly challenging and some of the interviews had a serious mental impact on the former soldier. She said: “I had to sit there hearing, “Transgender people are homosexual perverts“ over and over and over again. And some of these interviews were two hours long.

“So I go and confront all these guys which takes its toll on me - it’s very difficult. I mean I end up having a sort of mini-breakdown in the making of the film.”

Abi’s history of military service allowed her to have a unique access to the creaters and supporters of the bill - access that she believes may have been denied to other film crews.

“The one thing they revere more than anything in America is service to the country. So that gave me the in to go and meet these people.

“Because of the backlash against the bill none of these guys would talk to the press until they said, “Look there’s a military veteran who’s going to come and talk to you” and in that case they then opened up.

“They said, “Thank you for your service“.”

The documentary will be broadcast this Wednesday on Channel 4.