Jamie Wallis, a Conservative MP from Wales, declared at 3 a.m. on Wednesday morning that he is trans, and that a car crash in November last year was caused by PTSD from gay rape he had experienced two months prior. In a follow up statement he then announced he would still be using male pronouns.
“I’m trans. Or to be more accurate, I want to be,” Wallis said, in a statement he tweeted at 2:48 in the morning. “I’ve been diagnosed with gender dysphoria and I’ve felt this way since I was a very young child,” he added, making him the first Member of Parliament in history to ever come out as transgender.
Wallis, who was elected as an MP in December 2019, claimed that he had been outed as trans to his father and blackmailed in April 2020 for £50,000, which involved “photographs” being sent to other family members. The blackmailer had allegedly been sentenced to almost 3 years in prison as a result, he said.
The Conservative MP claimed that in September last year, he had “hooked up” with a man he met online, and was subject to gay rape after the perpetrator refused to wear a condom.
Wallis had crashed his car in November, and fled the scene, claiming he did this because he was “terrified” after developing PTSD from the assault.
It's time. https://t.co/cbt0tKQZuN pic.twitter.com/IUaCjm9PtE
— Jamie Wallis MP (@JamieWallisMP) March 30, 2022
Ten hours later, Wallis walked back his initial claims, saying that “for the time being,” while he still wants to be trans, he will continue to “present” as a male and use he/him pronouns at least until his term as an MP ends.
“It’s taken a long time for me to come to terms with my gender dysphoria,” said Wallis.
“It is a deeply personal matter and I had hoped to continue to keep this private until after I had finished my term as the Member of Parliament for Bridgend.”
I've had lots of questions regarding my pronouns etc. Please read the following statement clarifying some of the points raised 👇https://t.co/I4sqAvAeqx pic.twitter.com/jYiHxAr6Kq
— Jamie Wallis MP (@JamieWallisMP) March 30, 2022
Wallis has been no stranger to sexual scandals. Less than a month after his election, Buzzfeed News revealed that he was the co-owner of “Sugar-Daddy.net,” a now-defunct site that offered students and young people the opportunity to be “sponsored” by “wealthy executives, international businessmen, and diplomats.”
“Sugaring” as it is known often results in the sponsoree having a sexual relationship with their sponsor, although not legally in exchange for the money. “Whether you’re a boy, girl, straight, or gay, there’s a sugar daddy for you,” the site read.
Wallis initially claimed he had nothing to do with the site, and was accused of misleading the press.
The now seemingly trans MP received praise from Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who said that sharing his “intimate” story would have taken “an immense amount of courage,” and that he and the Conservative Party will give Wallis “the love and support” he seemingly needs.
Ironically, at the dinner which Wallis had described as “nice” in his coming-out statement, Johnson is said to have made a joke about transgenderism.
“Good evening ladies and gentleman, or as Keir Starmer would put it, people who are assigned female or male at birth,” he joked to the MPs at the dinner.
Openly bisexual Conservative MP Michael Fabricant was quick to refer to Wallis as “them,” not “him,” in a tweet stating his pride.
Speaking to GB News’s Tom Harwood, who said the event will likely spark “kindness” in the House of Commons, prominent conservative commentator Tim Montgomerie argued “sympathy” with these cases will grow among the public.
'As more people are exposed to stories like this, I think human sympathy will grow.'
Political commentator Tim Montgomerie reacts to Conservative MP Jamie Wallis coming out as trans online.
🖥 GB News on YouTube: https://t.co/Wa58gYGZwF pic.twitter.com/XuoCzYWxdm
— GB News (@GBNEWS) March 30, 2022
Other responses weren’t as positive as the Prime Minister. GB News commentator and writer for the American Spectator Connor Tomlinson pointed out that anyone who “engages in promiscous hook-up culture; believes truth is subjective to the teller; believes a man can become a woman,” is not a conservative.
In 2020, it was revealed that Gordon Lewis, Wallis’s campaign manager for the 2019 election, had been given a 16-month suspended sentence 4 years previously, for threatening to kill his own son with a baseball bat and a knife.
