Transwoman Stephanie Smyth, 33, was so badly terrorised by bigoted and hateful louts that she was forced to leave her hometown.

Stephanie — who previously worked as an administrator near the town’s Main Street — described the verbal abuse and discrimination she received as “traumatic.” However despite once being too terrified to leave her Johnstone home for fear of the tirades — brave Stephanie has vowed to help raise awareness over the stigma she has faced living as a transwoman in Renfrewshire.

And this week she has backed a campaign of work by young people who live in Renfrewshire who identify as LGBT.

“People need to wake up and realise that transgender people are here for a reason,” she told The Gazette.

“Because places like Johnstone are so small, everyone knows you so you can’t hide away.

“The only choice I had was to move away from Renfrewshire and start a new life. You live your life as you, it’s a new beginning, it’s a hard beginning and it’s very isolating.

“I was forced to move from there because of the abuse I suffered trying to be who I really am, it was hell.

“It’s not witchcraft, people want to burn you at the stake for being a woman when you were born a man.” During a recent study by LGBT Youth Scotland, it was discovered that 78 per cent of young people felt Renfrewshire was a difficult place to come out.

And according to the organisation, transgender and gay people feel more isolated in Renfrewshire than anywhere else.

The shocking findings were revealed during a study to raise awareness of the effects of hate crimes and phobic bullying.

LGBT Youth Scotland is a local organisation that supports young people from 13–25 years old who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender.

Craig Cochrane, youth work volunteer for the organisation, said: We have had increasing contact with young people from Renfrewshire, steadily over the past 12-18 months.

“A number of young people have talked to us about their lives through our online youth work, and a number of young people are travelling to Glasgow regularly to participate in the youth group there.

“This has given us both indication of the need for a service, and some evidence that there is a need to target social change in the area.” As part of the campaign, LGBT young people have been actively working towards developing and raising awareness within the Renfrewshire area.

They have facilitated peer educations in schools, specifically Linwood High and Glennifer High School to look at what LGBT is, the effects of phobic bullying and ways to minimise it within schools.

A fortnightly youth group in West Primary School, alongside Renfrewshire Youth Services, has also been launched.

Craig continued: “This allows where any young person aged 13 – 24 can come, meet new people, take part in educational workshop activities, games and chill out nights. This service will also offer support to LGBT young people with issues such as coming out.

“We were recently given ** in funding from Cashback for Communities to develop this.” One in sixteen gay and bisexual men aged 16 to 24 have attempted to take their own life in the last year, whilst less than one per cent of men in general aged 16 to 24 have attempted to take their own life in the same period.

“I’d say about 90 per cent of people are judgemental,” Stephanie continued.

“I think there’s a lot of bullying around it, society needs to wake up and accept these people.

“The biggest acceptance is yourself at first, you need to accept who you are first before you can come into this world and become a different person.”