Blaise Harris at her home in Laguna. Credit:Simone De Peak Ms Harris, 41, identifies as female. In 2014 she changed her first name from Christian, started taking female hormones, grew her hair long, and began the laborious process of changing gender on all her official paperwork. Getting to this point, from a confused little boy growing up in a British military family in the middle east, to being a sniper in the Ulster Defence Regiment of the British army, through a painful divorce and coming out as female to her elderly parents, to where she can stand up and tell her real story: it's been hell. "I wouldn't wish being trans on my worst enemy," she says. "But I wouldn't change my journey for the world. I'm a philosophical person. "Coming out of the army, you can imagine I wasn't a terribly empathetic person.

Blaise Harris. Credit:Simone De Peak "I wouldn't have learned compassion, tolerance, patience, empathy. Everything I've done has led me to this point." But a year ago, after what she alleges was unlawful discrimination by the Department of Education and the high school she had worked at casually for three years, Ms Harris was at "rock bottom". Blaise prior to transitioning. Credit:Simone De Peak She says she has not been asked to work at Cessnock High School since she told them she was transitioning. The head teacher told her "it might be a problem". The kids can be "nasty". Then, no more offers of work.

When she complained to the department hierarchy, she says a senior manager said "I don't have a problem with what the school did at all. You have to think of the children." And when she went to his boss, she alleges he backed the senior manager, saying "a lot of people have understandable misgivings". Ms Harris says she was so distressed and ashamed by this treatment that she stopped transitioning. She cut her hair, stopped taking hormones, gave away her women's clothes, and began living as a man again. "It played physical and mental havoc with me," she says. Ms Harris began to question what had happened with friends and supportive colleagues.

"I thought at the time, I can't take on the department, they're bloody massive, it would be easier to change me," she says. "Then I changed back and sank into depression again, until I basically realised no - I'm not going to do this, I'm going to be who I want to be." So after four months, she resumed taking hormones and living as a woman. "I don't see how me having boobs and wearing a dress to work because that's how I want to be, I don't see how that negatively impacts on anyone else's life," she says. The department has not replied to her formal letter of complaint after almost a month, but the Anti-Discrimination Board has accepted her case for adjudication. Ms Harris is seeking an apology and compensation.

Her lawyer, Alana Heffernan from Maurice Blackburn, says "people who are gender diverse are treated by the law like anyone else who is vulnerable: people who are racially diverse, with family responsibilities, or a disability. You can't treat them unfavourably. "Gender diversity is a pretty current issue and it's coming up more and more now. I think if people in Blaise's situation speak out, we'll find more people are also willing to speak out." A spokesman for the department said because it is compiling its submission to the Anti-Discrimination Board on the matter, it is not appropriate to comment further. "Schools are committed to diversity in the workforce and to non-discriminatory environments," the spokesman said. "I want to stop this happening to other people," Ms Harris says, of her motivation in going public, "because if this level of ignorance is hurting staff, I dread to think about some of the treatment that kids who are transgender might get, when the institution is this biased. I don't want any other transgender person to go home and kill themselves."

The increasing visibility of transgender people has seen many schools grappling with how best to handle the issue, particularly after the federally-funded anti-bullying Safe Schools program aimed at helping LGBTI students has been turned into a political football. This week state Liberal MP Damien Tudehope lodged a petition against Safe Schools in NSW with more than 17,000 signatures largely from the Chinese community in his electorate in north-western Sydney; while Labor MP Penny Sharpe has on Thursday launched a counter-petition in support of the program. There is an unexpectedly positive side to Ms Harris's story. She has started a gender diversity awareness training business, and while one former colleague called her "a transsexual Satan worshipper", other schools she still works at, notably Narara Valley High School, have been incredibly supportive, she says. Loading And the kids have been great, giving her hope for a future where being trans is widely accepted, without prejudice.

"One kid said, 'Are you transgender?' and when I said yes, he said 'Oh thank God, I thought you were a hipster'," Ms Harris says, with a chuckle. "And in class the kids said 'Do you want to be called Miss or Sir?' I said "Miss, please.' And that was it. 'Righto Miss.' Didn't hear 'Sir' again."