![\"Sam](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Big-Brother-housemate-Sam-has-spoken-about-their-gender-identity.jpg\")
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Big Brother housemate Sam has spoken about their gender identity. (ITV)<\/p>\n
Big Brother contestant Sam has opened up about their gender identity during a powerful conversation with a fellow housemate, in which they shut down misinformation about healthcare for transgender youth.<\/p>\n
Zumba instructor Sam, 27, who also goes by their musician name Smashby, spoke to 23-year-old parish councillor and fellow Big Brother<\/a> housemate George in last night\u2019s episode (1 October).<\/p>\n The conversation started with Sam explaining drag shows, with George asking why Sam doesn\u2019t do drag himself.<\/p>\n \u201cI just love being a personality as myself, I think it\u2019s enough and I blend gender enough to be entertaining enough and eye-catching enough so it works,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Asked by George what his gender is, Sam explained: \u201cJust what anybody wants. I just basically live life as me. And if anyone wants to call me something they can, I\u2019m not bothered really. It\u2019s more like everyone else, make them feel comfortable and I just live as myself, really.\u201d<\/p>\n On Instagram<\/a>, Sam lists their pronouns as he\/him, they\/them and she\/her.<\/p>\n George pressed the musician on whether they had \u201calways been like that\u201d in regards to their gender expression.<\/p>\n \u201c[I\u2019ve been] more vocal about it in the past few years, more visually like that the past few years. I\u2019ve always seen myself as that since I was a kid but I didn\u2019t know what that meant and how to articulate that until I got the vocabulary and got in the community and stuff,\u201d they shared.<\/p>\n Then, the conversation took a slightly more contentious turn, with George asking whether \u201cambiguous genders\u201d had \u201calways existed\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah I think so, but maybe just didn\u2019t have labels or the terminology and stuff,\u201d Sam reasoned.<\/p>\n Yet George pushed further, stating that while he believed there are instances of people who \u201cfeel like they\u2019ve been born in the wrong body\u201d, there is currently a gender \u201cideology\u201d being forced upon \u201cvulnerable minds, like children\u201d, which leads them to question whether they are trans.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if that\u2019s healthy for kids in development,\u201d he argued. \u201cI\u2019ve just heard cases where kids get the op done and everything, and that\u2019s irreversible and then they change their mind and realise they were just gay.\u201d<\/p>\n Sam gracefully shut George\u2019s stance down, explaining that no children in the UK undergo gender-affirming surgeries<\/a> until they are adults, aged 18 and above.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of kids can\u2019t have the op [gender-affirming surgery] and stuff \u2018cos it\u2019s illegal,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe only thing you can do, or could do before last year, underage [under 18] was get put on hormones, but that took about two years at least to go through mental evaluations.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to go to doctors and prove that you\u2019re trans and everything first, and then you get on hormones, which are reversible. That was always accessible to kids before last year, and now that\u2019s not a thing now.\u201d<\/p>\n In December 2024, the UK\u2019s health secretary Wes Streeting announced an \u201cindefinite ban\u201d on puberty blockers for trans youth under the age of 18. The ban has led to \u201coverwhelming levels of distress\u201d<\/a> among trans youth in the country, according to research published in the Journal of Gender Studies in June.<\/p>\n Sam continued: \u201cSo it\u2019s more just giving them the option to have a pause in their puberty and think what they want for themselves. But nothing life changing happens until you are an adult and you have to take years to prove it and stuff, so it\u2019s probably more misinformation and propaganda.\u201d<\/p>\n Research published in the medical journal Jama Pediatrics in March 2024 also rebukes<\/a> George\u2019s argument that trans youth \u201cchange their mind and realise they were just gay.\u201d<\/p>\n The research found that just one per cent<\/a> of trans teenagers detransition post medical intervention, such as taking puberty blockers or hormone replacement therapy. Similarly, a study published in October last year uncovered that 97 per cent of US and Canadian under-18s accessing such medical care were \u201chighly satisfied\u201d with the results.<\/p>\n In May 2024, a study published in the American Journal of Surgery found that less than 0.5 per cent<\/a> of people who had accessed hormone replacement therapy (HRT) as part of their gender-affirming healthcare experienced some form of regret.<\/p>\n![\"Protestors](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Wes-Streeting-protest.jpg\")
Wes Streeting has faced considerable backlash for his decision to ban puberty blockers indefinitely. (Getty)<\/p>\n