Lynda recalled going to an all-boys school and how isolating it was. “I related to nobody,” she said. Since she was a child, things have changed substantially. Discussing the recent introduction of a new SPHE curriculum for primary schools, which will include discussions of LGBTQ+ identities, Lynda reflected on the impact something like that would have had on her life. “I wouldn’t have felt so lonely. Maybe I would’ve been able to talk to my parents then, and maybe I could have been in a mixed school. That would’ve helped me so, so much to cope,” she said.
Then, she talked about a moment that changed the course of her entire life: meeting what would become her wife, Carmel, when she was 11. “I just knew straight away,” she said. “Some people have a soulmate, and they’re not necessarily married to them or love them... I was lucky I had both.”
Later in life, the two of them built a family together and had children. Recounting a love story of profound understanding, Lynda shared how she finally discussed the topic of her gender identity with her wife. “I said, ‘I have to do something about all of this, but I don’t know how to go about it.’ And she said, ‘We’ll look into it. Let’s give it a go together if you feel like that will help you.’”
Carmel passed away a few years ago after an illness, leaving a huge void behind. “She gave me everything,” Lynda expressed. “She was the greatest person in my life who inspired me. No one else ever inspired me like that. And even today I’m still in love with her.”
Lynda’s was a lifelong fight to advance the rights of trans people in Ireland, as well as the broader LGBTQ+ community. She was one of the founders of the Trans Equality Network Ireland (TENI) in Cork in 2004. The group, which would then be revived in 2006, went on to become the largest trans organisation in Ireland and impact the lives of so many in the community. For her role in trans activism, Lynda was featured in TG4 programme Leargas -Sé no Sí in 2004, as well as in the 2006 RTÉ documentary Flesh and Blood, which was broadcast on national television.
“I caused a lot of trouble in this life,” she laughed.
She described the process of trying to access gender-affirming care at a time when there was even less State support than today. Highlighting the need for urgent action to address the state of trans healthcare in Ireland, she said: “The Gender Recognition is very good in Ireland. It’s one of the strongest, but the healthcare is gone. It’s gone.”
Speaking about getting involved in activism for intersex rights as well, Lynda said, “I wanted to learn more about it... There’s some kind of connection between intersex and trans people because we’re all fighting for bodily autonomy basically.”
Activism has always been a fundamental part of Lynda’s life. “Sometimes you get tired and you need to rest, but I also love it. Because it’s not an illness tiredness. It’s just an I-need-a-whiskey type of thing,” she joked. “I don’t think I’ll ever really stop as long as I have my health and my breath.
“I love this community. Everybody can just be themselves. And there’s no pressure. You can be outrageous or you can be normal or you can be boring, whatever.”
Talking about how things have progressed, she reflected: “A lot of younger trans and non-binary people are better together, they’re finding love at a younger age and finding lives together. And it is wonderful. It’s absolutely wonderful.
“It’s only through us getting battered and bruised through the years that they have that today. That’s wonderful to see, and I don’t resent that. I say, ‘Wow, that is delicious.’ That is the icing on the cake. To see them be able to be there and free to be. And we still have to fight for them, and that’s why the old crowd comes back to do that.
“So they won’t let me retire,” she laughs. “Here I am and I’m a bit older, a bit fatter, a bit slower, but much happier.”