Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
‘My lesbian kiss on Brookside changed minds.. so can this’
ACTRESS Anna Friel hopes Butterfly will have as big an impact on attitudes to diversity as her lesbian kiss on Brookside did 24 years ago.
Anna made history when she and co-star Nicola Stephenson shared British soap’s first ever lesbian kiss.
She says: “We didn’t set out to shock, we set out to share a story.
“At that point I knew about lesbians but I didn’t realise there were people who were so unhappy and felt so lonely with no one to talk to that they were threatening to kill themselves. Look how much things have changed in those 24 years.
“People have opened their eyes. We’re moving forward.”
Now she wants her role in
Butterfly to lead to better understanding of transgender children.
Anna, 42, says: “At 17 years old, I’d walk down the street and would never, ever, be called Anna. Yes, I was playing Beth in Brookside, but I was always called ‘dyke’ and ‘lezzer’. They were that affronted and that offended.
“If times have changed that much in 24 years around that subject, how is time going to change attitudes around this?
“No one has to want it, agree with it, like it. It’s just the same with any topic. Learn about it. Educate yourself. Because knowledge is power.
“None of us knows what’s going to happen tomorrow. Your child could be born with blue eyes or green eyes or transgender.
“So take a look at a family dealing with this. It could be your child or grandchild.” Anna, who has a 13-year-old daughter, was shocked to learn of the bullying transgender kids and their parents were subjected to.
Also a producer on the series, she says: “We went to Mermaids, a charity for children and families dealing with transgender. That opened my eyes completely. We met a boy who was formerly living as a girl. You would never have known. “We also heard shocking stories of bullying, abuse, death threats. Just awful things. That made me even more passionate about getting it right. And saying to people, ‘You never ever judge something you don’t have a clue about.’
“Everyone is entitled to an opinion. But to put death threats through letterboxes... Really? Some of the parents had at least been spat at. Other parents at the school would alienate them.”
Bullied at school herself, Anna knows “how mean children can be”. But she says: “For adults to do that? They should know better. I have no time and no forgiveness for anybody who would be so vile.” She also hopes Butterfly will help parents recognise signs a child is transgender.
She says: “So many parents out there just ignore it. And say to a son, ‘Don’t be silly. Go and kick a football’. “They think they will grow out of it. Parents find themselves totally out of their depth.”