92. Paris Lees: the truth about trans people
The Owen Jones Podcast
Owen Jones
4.4 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 3 June 2021
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Paris Lees is a trailblazer: a trans woman who emerged into public view at the beginning of the 2010s when trans people had very little visibility at all, she was the first trans columnist at Vogue, a presenter, a journalist, and campaigner. Her stunning new memoir - What It Feels Like For A Girl - documents a life that began on a Nottinghamshire council estate, the anti-LGBTQ hatred she suffered growing up, spending time in a young offender's institution, to ending up a panellist on Question Time to presenting shows on the BBC.
We talk about her life - and how trans people are suffering a vicious campaign of transphobia in modern Britain.
Help us take on an often hateful media here: https://patreon.com/owenjones84
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-owen-jones-podcast.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hey hey, it's Owen Jones, welcome to podcast. Today Paris Lees is someone I've known for a long time. |
| 0:12.3 | She's a trailblazer in terms of a public trans figure. It became a visible, I suppose, figure |
| 0:25.0 | long before others and helped pave the foundations for others to follow. And she's written this book, |
| 0:31.9 | which is a brilliant must read book, how it feels like for a girl, what it feels like for a girl, |
| 0:38.3 | sorry. And it's her memoirs growing up on a working class in a working class community on a |
| 0:48.0 | council stay in Nottinghamshire. And her life is extraordinary. I mean, she's gone through a lot |
| 0:55.3 | to say the least. So we talk about that, but also we talk about, I mean Britain has got a big, |
| 1:01.0 | big problem in Transphobia to say the least. And Trans people have been on the receiving end of a |
| 1:07.5 | full frontal attack, facing the sort of attack lines gay people who have, we, we launched |
| 1:13.3 | suffered and the same lives have been deployed against Trans people. So we've got a lot to talk |
| 1:17.2 | about. Do support us on patreon.com, full slash on jz4 to keep the show on the road, |
| 1:21.2 | you support our documentaries and all the work that we do, brilliant team. And please subscribe, |
| 1:28.8 | give us five stars if you feel, if you feel generous. With that, listen to me, check to Paris. |
| 1:46.8 | Paris, who is the author of the superb, I don't know what accident that was, the superb, |
| 1:53.2 | what it feels like, there it is, what it feels like for a girl, which will now be spinning in her |
| 1:58.4 | head to say, it's a sensational memoir, I would say. I can't remember, I actually wrote a book |
| 2:03.3 | endorsement for it, but I can't remember what I said, but it is a sensational must read. It's |
| 2:07.7 | full of so much honesty and it's so candid. It's moving. It'll, you know, it'll really grab you |
| 2:14.5 | by the labels. It's a brilliant, brilliant read, so insightful. And about the experience, I mean, |
| 2:20.6 | I told you the first thing, I want to start, oh, hi, Paris, by the way, so it's just me. |
| 2:24.5 | Hello, how's it nice to see you? Thank you for having me on, for the great introduction to the |
| 2:28.9 | button. Can I just say it's great to be at the stage, because you know that I've been writing this |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Owen Jones, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Owen Jones and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.