Nadia Almada on “terrifying times”

It pains me that my identity is being questioned…

Today on Good Morning Britain, Charlotte Hawkins and Adil Ray were joined by Big Brother‘s first transgender winner Nadia Almada who shared her thoughts on the new Supreme Court ruling as she says the idea of waking up on a male ward is “terrifying”. 

Nadia, who won the fifth series of Big Brother back in 2004, claimed a record 74% of the vote that year. Her gender identity was not shared with her housemates at the time but viewers were aware.

Now, over 20 years on, with the Supreme Court recently ruling that a ‘woman’ is defined by biological sex, Nadia told Adil how this is “terrifying times” for her. She said: “The whole idea, that I am not a woman for that matter based on sex, is terrifying. For me, or for us, people from my generation who have lived through those kinds of experiences of being discriminated [against], now having those protective rights taken away from us, is very very dehumanising. It’s terrifying.

“It pains me that my identity is being questioned… For me it’s more about my identity. Most of the time people call me transgender, but I believe in my way of how I carry my life, I am a woman first and second of trans identity.

“The idea of waking up in a male ward – I would rather refuse treatment then have to be subjected to that… Once this happened [the Supreme Court ruling], it triggered the whole idea of how feminine I am, how are people going to see me, do I have the right westernised views of what a woman should look like or present as, and then I went insane about my identity.” 

Responding to Adil reading out the court ruling in which states that trans rights will still be protected in the Equality Act, Nadia said: “It also means that I could be questioned by vigilantes under the pretext that they can call us trans women or not. Where is my safety on that regard?”

Good Morning Britain weekdays from 6am on ITV1, ITVX, STV & STV Player