As any Trekkie will tell you, the first time you watch Star Trek is an unforgettable experience. For Andy Winder, it was life-defining. He grew up living with his gender identity in secret, knowing that if he came out to his Mormon family it would mean alienation from the church he saw as his home.
With over 80 per cent of his classmates also being Mormon, Winder also felt unable to trust others around him at school and so battled with his identity all alone. “I felt that if they knew I wished I had been born male, they would see me as lesser and no longer want to be around me,” he wrote for the official Star Trek website.
“I repressed it as much as I could, but I still felt unworthy compared to my friends and family because I couldn’t get rid of it.” Then a teacher introduced him to the Starship Enterprise, and everything changed.