The GIC, also known as the Gender Identity Clinic, has released details about the waiting times in the UK for trans healthcare and hormone replacement therapy for LGBT individuals.

It is currently offering first appointments to those who were referred to the service in January 2018, making the waiting list nearly five years.

A second appointment for the service is also expected to take longer than a year. The NHS has expressed the importance of LGBT individuals finding support in their local areas. However, for most communities, this isn’t possible.

The only advertised support for LGBT people within Leicester is the LGBT Foundation which is an incredibly helpful service.

However, it faces extreme pressure due to the amount of LGBT students and people within Leicester.

Sion, a student at De Montfort University and chairperson of the LGBTQ+ Society, said: “In the five years I’ve been out as trans, and the three years I’ve lived in Leicester city after moving from rural Leicestershire, the complete lack of support for trans people in the city and the wider county has cost lives.

"I think there's a tendency to assume that LGBT support is an optional thing.

"I believe that is because people see LGBT support as just saying partner instead of wife or as putting your pronouns in your bio.

"These don't address the very real material conditions we face as part of the LGBT and Trans community.

"We are systematically deprived, not only of our humanity and of housing, but of our lives too.”