Two of the UK’s best known and most successful transgender figures say that criticism of their status by Jenni Murray and Germaine Greer proves that the media is not as tolerant as it thinks. And they say the sector remains a very challenging option for transgender professionals. 

Speaking at an RTS event in the North East, broadcasters India Willoughby and Stephanie Hirst agreed that building their TV and radio careers had not been easy.

“There’s a perception that transgender is accepted, but you’d struggle to name four transgender role models,” said Willoughby, the first transgender host of ITV’s Loose Women. “Why aren’t the broadcasters looking at it seriously? We need more of us on screen, in front of microphones and behind the scenes.

“Not just in the media, but in business and politics, too. The fact that we’re both on radio and television is great, but it’s a crack in the wall – the wall is not yet down.”

Hirst, who presents for BBC Radio Manchester, ITV’s Lorraine and Channel 4, revealed that, when she was looking to transition, there was no one she felt she could identify with.

“You’ve got to look at it as pure biology. By transitioning, you’re correcting a birth defect.”

“It was for this reason that I wanted to come out about my transition very publicly – through BBC Five Live. I wanted to use it as a springboard,” said Hirst. “Someone told me that I could save a life by doing this – and make a difference. I feel we are still taking baby steps. It’s about being more visible without it defining you.”

A turning point for Hirst in her decision to transition came when she heard the lyrics of Supertramp’s Take the Long Way Home, which say: “When you look through the years and see what you could have been, what might have been if you’d had more time.” She said that the song “hit me like a bolt”.

Both presenters had high-profile media jobs as men before they underwent gender transition – which involves hormone treatment and surgery. Hirst hosted national chart and breakfast shows on Capital for 11 years, while Willoughby started her career as reporter Jonathan Willoughby on ITV Border and spent five years living a “bizarre double life”.

“I knew from the age of five that I was a girl,” she said. “But you have to conform, so I buried the secret deep within me. But the strain of it became too much. I left my job in TV and moved to Newcastle to work as India, the press officer, during the week. Then, at weekends, I would resurrect Jonathan and go back to my son and family in Carlisle.”

The double life was exhausting, so Willoughby broke the news to her teenage son that she planned to live as a woman. He supported her decision and, two years ago, Willoughby underwent surgery. “Honestly, by then it was such a relief – it was like having my tonsils out!” she said.

Soon after, she was offered on-screen presenting work back at ITV Border. “I had thought my career in journalism was over,” said Willoughby. “But here I am. I do tend to get the softer stuff to do – not the serious stories now. I don’t really know why.”

Her first appearance as a presenter on Loose Women has been nominated for Top Media Moment in May’s 2017 British LGBT Awards.

Her encounter with Jenni Murray on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour put her in the headlines again. “She was questioning my authenticity as a woman so I told her on air that I thought she was being a little transphobic. She said that I couldn’t be real because I’d grown up with male privilege.

“That assumes that I enjoyed the experience of growing up male. You don’t benefit from being trapped in the wrong body - it becomes an acting job.

“I’d be happy to debate this with Jenni again. Somebody should send us both on a spa holiday and film it.”

Hirst agreed: “I’m not a drum banger – but I’d love to share a panel with Jenni or Germaine. The more visible we are, the more likely that people will understand.

“You’ve got to look at it as pure biology. By transitioning, you’re correcting a birth defect.”

Germaine Greer’s BBC interview – in which she refused to acknowledge that post-operative transgender men were now women – brought more criticism from Willoughby.

“It’s plain wrong that Germaine gets invited to speak on this subject as some kind of expert,” she said. “You see lots of TV panels discussing gender realignment with four people around the table and not one of them is transgender.”

Willoughby and Hirst were joined at the Digital Cities North East day session by the writer of BBC Two’s first transgender sitcom, Boy Meets Girl. ­Elliott Kerrigan said that the casting of trans actor Rebecca Root had been a breakthrough moment in the development of the show, which ran for two seasons.

“She brought a lot of herself into the role,” he said. “Leo [her boyfriend in the series] asks her at one point what it is like being born in the wrong body.

“In the close-up, she had tears in her eyes. This was from the heart – it wasn’t scripted. I’m convinced that it was that scene, and that performance from the pilot show, that won us the series commission.”

There were mixed reactions from the panel to other TV attempts to portray transgender characters.

Willoughby disapproved of ITV’s decision to cast a woman in the role of Hayley Cropper in Coronation Street. But Hirst felt that it was still a ground-breaking moment for the soap – after all, Hayley was its first trans character.

The transgender Kyle Slater in ­EastEnders and the introduction of non-­binary characters in US shows Billions and Couple-ish were welcomed as positive moves.

Hirst singled out Channel 4’s Queer as Folk as a breakthrough for people struggling with their sexuality.

But, according to Willoughby, there remained an element of “box-ticking” from broadcasters, who failed to reflect the lives of the one in 100 people who are transgender. “I did a talk at Teesside University and discovered that 20 of its students openly identify as transgender. This population is not being reflected in the media,” she said. “I think there should be more discussion in schools to open up the dialogue.”

Hirst insisted that the BBC gave her a job solely because of her talent: “I know that it wasn’t the result of box ticking. I don’t mention on my show that I’m trans. I’m accepted as ‘that lady on the radio’. The BBC and Channel 4 have been wonderful.

“I made some noises about a possible return to commercial radio, where I spent 11 years, but – nothing. They won’t touch me.”

And there was advice for people working alongside transgender colleagues. “Language is a bit of a trip wire and some people get rather sensitive,” observed Willoughby. “The etiquette is that you don’t ‘dead name’. You refer to the individual in the now – not as was.”

‘Transgender and the media’ was an RTS North East and the Border event and part of the Digital Cities North East day at Baltic, Gateshead, on 4 April. It was chaired by Ruth Pitt and produced by Chris Jackson. The panellists were Stephanie Hirst, Elliott Kerrigan and India Willoughby.