Lucy Vallender, UK's First Transgender Muslim Woman, Gets Married After Leaving Territorial Army (PHOTOS)Yasmine Hafiz, The Huffington Post, 09/04/2013 5:20 pm EDT
Lucy Vallender finally feels "true to herself" since getting gender confirmation surgery and converting to Islam, saying that since the surgery three years ago and the conversion last September, "I felt happy and relieved at last -- the happiest I've ever felt in my life." She's been called the first transgender Muslim in the UK, but she said, "I bet there are more -- they are just frightened..."
Vallender feels more comfortable in her own skin now more than ever before, but unfortunately some members of her new religious community don't feel the same way. Her local mosque in Swindon, Wiltshire, barred her from praying with the women and asked her many personal and judgmental questions...
A spokesman for the mosque said, "Everybody is welcome, as long as they behave according to Islam," says the Daily Mail.
She converted to Islam last September, explaining that she had thought about it for a while and finally "did it because it is a nice religion -- so peaceful." Vallender continued, "I felt good and I had something to believe in."
