2021 Winner
Skye Morden
Transgender police officer is a trailblazer for allowing people to live as their true selves.
“Sometimes I feel like I am in the film The Matrix, dodging bullets left right and centre,” says PC Skye Morden.
She’s not talking about her role as a police officer but the reaction she’s faced since coming out in public as a trans woman.
“Ever since I was young I knew something was different about me,” explains Skye. “There was a disconnect between my brain and my body. It caused constant worry, anxiety and stress which I have tried to hide, ignore, run from and bluster my way through.
“By 2018, I simply had enough. I realised that I needed to be me, for my own sanity.”
In a 20-year career on the frontline with West Midlands Police, Skye has faced violent attacks, armed robbers and rioters and she has even been stabbed in the line of duty.
But she says nothing was as scary as the moment she came out to her colleagues as a transgender woman.
The courage it took to do that, and then to live every day as her true self, inspired the Pride of Birmingham judges who chose Skye to receive a Special Recognition award.
“To hear that I had been chosen for this award, I was blown away,” says Skye.
“It takes a lot to leave me speechless, but winning the award did. I feel so humbled. The thing is, I’m no more brave than any other trans person. Just being yourself is terrifying, telling friends and family, ‘I am trans’, is the most courageous act I’ve done. There is a lot of misinformation and fear out there at the moment.
“Being in the police, standing up and trying to say who I am is really important. But I certainly never thought about any recognition for doing so. I just think we need to carry on being compassionate and kind.”
Skye joined the police in 2001 and was one of the first officers to be trained to use the X26 taser and is now one of the Midlands’ foremost taser trainers. She is working with Amnesty International and academics on a project exploring public perception of the use of force.
She says attitudes at work have changed, and she would not have felt able to come out earlier in her career. She says: “Twenty years ago the police was a very different organisation, culturally. I certainly would not have known how to come out. It was just something I locked away. I bottled it away and carried on only telling close friends and family.”
Skye’s fellow officers have been overwhelmingly supportive which has allowed her to continue her career with a greater inner peace, as well as fly the flag for others who are struggling to be their true selves.
But as a trans woman, she still faces challenges every day, even doing something as mundane as popping to the shops.
She says: ‘We’re undoubtedly in a more tolerant era now than 10 or 20 years ago – that’s what held me back from coming out earlier – but it’s still scary.
“My friends and family have been supportive. But just being me seems to be a political statement and that shouldn’t be the case. Everyone has an opinion and a view. I just want to be me.
“Even going into Asda to buy a pint of milk is an ordeal. Everyone looks at me. I know it’s because I look different. I am just five months into transitioning, and 6ft 2 inches tall. People stare, and it’s soul destroying. I hardly go out anymore.
“I think I will feel like that until I properly transition, which will take a few years. I wanted to go through the NHS for my gender reassignment treatment but the waiting list was so long I decided to go private. The cost means I am taking extra shifts at work.
“Eventually I’ll have to go in front of a panel and prove I am serious about transitioning. The thought terrifies me and it seems cruel, but I’ll do it.
“At work my colleagues see that I am having a slow transition, that in itself is important.
“And however hard it is, I feel ridiculously happier now though. It’s like I’ve been let off the leash and that my world has gone from black and white into colour.”