Eddie Izzard gives inspiring speech on being transgender as he takes a break from marathon to get his nails done

Inspirational: Eddie Izzard discusses being transgender
BBC/YouTube
Jennifer Ruby15 March 2016
The Weekender

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Eddie Izzard took a break from his epic Sports Relief marathon challenge to give an inspiring speech on being transgender.

The comedian, who has now run 21 out of his 27 consecutive marathons, stopped off to get his nails done on Tuesday and took the opportunity to discuss his gender identity.

In a video, the 54-year-old said: “Being a transgender guy, I do like my nails and they've been knocked about a bit so I'm getting my nails re-done.

He continued: “I use it as a badge of identity. I am a transgender guy. I came out 31 years ago.

“I've got boy genetics and girl genetics. We've got obsessed with it in humanity, we've been obsessed with it for 5… 10,000 years of civilisation as we become more and more civilised and people are still being murdered. In Uganda they were trying to sentence people to death.

“It doesn’t matter what sex or sexuality, how you identify or who you fancy - it matters not one whit.

“What do you do in life? What do you create? What do you add to the human existence - that is what matters.

“It all comes back to Nelson Mandela – try and put something into the world, and leave something positive. The confidence that it has given me, coming out 31 years ago in 1985, is immense .

“But it was a very hard journey. Very hard. But I thought it was right to be honest about it, to tell my family, friends and then the world.

“I identify somewhat boy-ish and somewhat girl-ish. I identify both but I fancy women.

“I don't know why, it's just the genetic cards I've been given and a lot of people have said very nasty things to me, have fought me in the streets but f*** them because this is real and this has always been there.

“Let's get the truth out rather than running and hiding. I'm not for running and hiding.”

Izzard is attempting to run 27 marathons in as many days across South Africa to raise money for Sports Relief.

The comedian is planning to run over 700 miles during the challenge, with the number of marathons reflecting the number of years that Nelson Mandela spent in prison.

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