A Britain’s Got Talent finalist has come out as trans and officially changed their name.
Ashley Gray, known professionally and to fans of the ITV talent show as Gabz, announced the “exciting news” to his 111,000 TikTok followers when he also confirmed he is now waiting for gender reassignment treatment on the NHS. The singer reached the BGT finals back in 2013 when he was just 13. He impressed the judges at the audition stages by performing his self-penned rap track, The One, which later reached number six on the UK Charts, as reported by The Mirror.
Now, nearly a decade later, Ash, who uses the pronouns he/him, said: “So, if you didn’t know, I’m trans and I’ve been waiting on the gender clinic waiting list for quite a while. I waited seven months and then yesterday I had my first appointment, which is really exciting. It went really well, I mean I just cried the whole time, but it went really well. Which means I’m going to be able to change the name on my passport and my gender mark on my passport, which is exciting.”
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The brave 23-year-old, whose TikTok name is Ash Gray songs, revealed he officially changed his name to Ashley a couple of months ago. Explaining the journey he had been on and what is next, he added: “I feel like a lot of the waiting around for the stuff is money problems. It’s so expensive, so going through the NHS, it is free. I feel like I’m going to have updates soon on when I can start T (testosterone).
“I’ll have to see how long it’s going to be for top surgery because hopefully, I won’t have to fundraise anymore for that. Hopefully, I’ll be able to do it through the NHS. I’m just really excited and I will keep you guys updated now because I feel like I’m actually getting somewhere with this.”
Ending the two-minute video, Ashley, who performed at Kirkby's Christmas light switch-on in 2016, said: “Love you guys, thanks for all the love and support on my last video. Bye..
Fans took to the comment section of the songwriter’s video to congratulate him for sharing his gender identity. Summer_Lackenby2004 said: “I’m so proud of youuuuu!! You can see how much this means to you.” Megssaliceee added: “Ahhh stop, I’m so happy for you,” and Amy2900876 commented: “This made my day, which has been pretty rough, congratulations.”
