What is your favourite place in Sussex? It’s got to be the West Pier, before I was lucky enough to move here I always loved this iconic structure and now that this is my home the derelict beauty of the West Pier still calms me. What do you love the most about living in Sussex? I’m a south coast girl, originally from Bournemouth, but Sussex has got everything, the Downs, the sea, the jewel that...
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A lot has happened in the two years since I came out as #transgender I’ve run for parliament, been a TV presenter, spoken at the TUC & Wembley, but here’s my 1st ever speech telling my story in Sept 2015. Here’s an email that I sent about it that same day: “I obviously touched on a very important issue with my talk this morning in which I discussed being trans, the...
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In a recent speech the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, said that he will support the Conservative Party to improve transgender rights in the UK. As a Labour Parliamentary Candidate and a trans woman I fully support him in his cross-party approach to reforming the Gender Recognition Act. Since I transitioned in 2015 I have faced prejudice, abuse and even death threats and it’s time for...
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As I stood on stage, a room full of expectant people looking up at me I was totally focused on the next words that I would hear. “Sophie Rose Cook, Labour Party, 20,882.” In the space of five short weeks we’d achieved the seemingly impossible, taking a previously safe Tory seat and making it a marginal, increasing the Labour vote by 114% with one of the biggest swings in the...
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Five weeks ago no one gave Labour a chance in Theresa May’s snap election, it was supposed to be the Prime Minister’s coronation, proving that she was strong and stable enough to win everything we wanted from Brexit. No one gave Labour a chance nationally and certainly no one gave Labour a chance in the safe Tory seat of East Worthing & Shoreham. An idea that was probably reinforced by the...
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04:30 June 8, 2017 As I look out at the sea I contemplate the journey that I have been on. Two years, to the day since I moved to Brighton, and only 23 months since I came out as Transgender. My life has changed beyond all recognition. The shy, scared person had found her voice and her purpose. I’ve met wonderful people along the way and experienced joy and sadness, freedom and loss. Today...
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