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Transsexual's Leighton business blighted by bigots
Teraina forced to hand over running of workshop due to boycott
A woman has been forced to give up running her Leighton workshop after 17 years' hard work because of a lack of understanding into her trans-sexualism.
Teraina Hird, 66, is "hurt" and "upset" by some of her customer's reactions to her change in appearance from a man to a woman.
Teraina owns Terry Hird Engines in Harmill Industrial Estate, Leighton, but has had to hand over the running to colleague Mitch after customers started boycotting the business putting it into financial jeopardy.
Her transgender had resulted in rumours and talking behind her back which made her feel uncomfortable.
Some friends even stopped visiting. Many have been supportive though, but a lot have voted with their feet.
Teraina said: "People just couldn't get their heads around it. This is not a matter of my sexuality, but one of gender.
"It is with a heavy heart that I have to cease running my business. I shall no longer work on the premises. Rumours said I had to be a pervert, but that is just lack of understanding. This is about gender not preferences."
Teraina has endured an internal struggle all of her life knowing she is a woman born in a man's body. When she was a child her mother and grandmother were both aware Teraina should have been born a girl. People would ask why her mother had dressed 'a lovely little girl' as a boy.
Married for 33 years, even Teraina's wife, who died in 2008, knew and would regularly dress her up.
Teraina's true sex finally came to the surface "like a volcano exploding" when she suffered an almost complete breakdown with heart problems which doctors could not understand.
But Teraina knew what it was. She said: "It felt like being hit by an express train – I went through mental hell.
"I am a woman trapped in a man's body and all I am doing is taking steps to remedy the mistake nature has made. There is never a right time to do this, it is something deep inside that, after bubbling under the surface for so long, finally erupted. I have lived my whole life in denial.
"I feel a sense of loss and disappointment over the business, people have let me down. But I trust Mitch 100 per cent – he is a diamond geezer. I hope my old customers will read this and start using the services I have provided in the past which are now being carried on by Mitch."
Teraina's gender reassignment surgery is scheduled for October in Thailand. She has already had hair removal treatment and her doctor was happy to provide hormone treatments as testosterone levels were already very low.
Teraina has made many new friends, most 'born in the wrong bodies' as she was. The condition is by no means unusual.
She said: "I have become a better person. I am more understanding, tolerant and the happiest I have ever been. I have know discovered the true me."
>> What do you think about the boycotting of Teraina's business and her decision to step aside from running it. We'd love to hear your views. news@lbobserver.co.uk
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Weather for Leighton Buzzard
Thursday 09 February 2012
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