David Bailey’s son Sascha reveals what he’d tell his unborn child about trans ideology as he prepares to become a father after nearly transitioning to be a woman

Less than three years ago, Sascha Bailey was on the verge of transitioning into a woman. 

The former model, who is the son of renowned photographer David Bailey and his model ex-wife Catherine, had been suffering with depression and at one point felt so desperately low that he contemplated taking his own life.

Yet he soon found himself convinced that his unhappiness was caused by gender dysphoria and that by transitioning he would live life happily.

Emboldened by advice from internet chatrooms, he visited a private doctor, who – after a 10-minute consultation – confirmed he was transgender and wrote him a prescription for female hormones.

Yet ahead of undergoing life-changing gender affirmation surgery Sascha was brought back from the brink by his father and his new girlfriend Lucy Brown – with whom he’s now expecting his first child. 

Now, as he prepares to become a father, Sascha is braced for his unborn child perhaps one day broaching the subject of gender dysphoria themselves. 

‘I’d be very against it, obviously,’ Sascha mused. ‘You can’t get a tattoo. You can’t change your gender. It’s really as simple as that.  

‘If you give someone one little piece of control, one little thing they can do, they will gravitate towards that little bit of control. 

‘Kids have no control over their life. So we have to look after them, we make sure that they don’t make bad decisions. 

‘If you allow them to have this one avenue, a lot of them will take it just because it’s a bit of control.’

Claiming there is not enough research to suggest when a child knows for sure if they identify as transgender, he went on: ‘It’s a soft science and it’s psychology. It’s based on self-reporting – we can only go down to individual experience. 

‘So we can talk about what’s objective. And the objective facts are the hormone treatments, whether they’re puberty blockers or hormone treatment, are bad for you.

‘The surgeries are objectively bad for you. They may be affirming for some people, but they are still bad for you. 

‘We’ve got to look at the objective factors and that to me that is that kids cannot make decisions for themselves.

‘I cannot in a million years understand why anyone would think that an under 18 year old can make these decisions. It doesn’t make sense.’ 

Discussing the sudden influx in trans people receiving treatment, he went on: ‘Even in the past with the accepted theories of gender identity and all that, one of the criteria factors was that you had to live with your gender for a little while.

‘This is a relatively new thing where we’ve decided that kids can suddenly make this decision – but on a basic critical thinking level, how can you know [what gender you feel] if you don’t have a frame of reference? It’s absurd.’

Sascha is not alone in his views, with polls showing that scepticism over trans rights is growing in the UK.

YouGov research revealed in January that nearly half of Brits – 48 per cent – are opposed to legal gender change being allowed. That was up 11 percentage points in the past two years, and higher than the 34 per cent who supported the idea.

Yet with the backlash comes an explosion in the number of gender-questioning youth. 

Meanwhile, government reports tentatively estimates there are 200,000-500,000 trans people in the UK, with this number highest among people aged 16 to 24 years.

Referencing the Hikikomori phenomenon in Japan, where individuals – particularly young adults – withdraw from society,  Sascha went on: ‘It’s something that I think high affluent societies at their peak experience a lot more. 

‘We can see a clear example of this with the sons and daughters of famous people who tend to be transitioning quite a lot, and actors. 

‘Then it trickles down to the middle class, which is what we’re seeing now increasingly with, the trans movement and things of that nature.’

He continued: ‘I think we will see this growing more and more, because there are influencers who are trans. There are people in the fashion industry that are trans, that transition very early.

‘They are, whether not intentionally, but just by existing and being out there and being celebrated, they are pushing this narrative to transition earlier. 

‘And one of the major issues with this is most people who are doing this, the only reason that they want to transition younger is because they’ll look prettier, which is an absurdly shallow reason to be doing it.

‘Now it feels like people are being pushed by the same group of people towards changing everything about yourself to fit in.’

Doubling down on his remarks, he continued: ‘I think it is very much an affluent thing. It’s not something that people are, generally speaking, from poor families are doing.’

If anything, Sascha believes that an echo chamber online pushing trans ideology has hurt the cause. 

‘All this ideology nonsense – being able to actually change sex – which most people who are trans for a long time don’t believe, has set them back 10 to 15 years. 

‘Before it didn’t really matter but now suddenly it’s being pushed on kids as this kind of lifestyle trend.

‘It’s got people’s backs up and it has caused a huge backlash. It’s caused a problem for people who were just living their lives as trans and didn’t want all of us extra stuff. 

‘They didn’t need all of these neopronouns. They just were walking around being themselves. And if someone was a bit rude to them, well, they’ve had to deal with that all of their lives. They had to have quite thick skin. 

‘Whereas now the younger generation doing it, they almost act as if everyone should treat them perfectly.’

He continued: ‘Those who transitioned before were used to being discriminated against and did it anyway because they were so sure about what they wanted to be.

‘It’s not something that people should “want” and it’s not something that’s for the faint of heart. 

‘It’s something that you actually have to be quite tough to do, and you have to be very sure of yourself to do. The older generation were resilient. 

‘The younger ones are weak about it, “oh no, someone called me the wrong name”. 

‘It’s absurd that we’re heading towards that direction, or people get so angry that they want to post on social media and cause an uproar and get people fired because they said something that might have offended them. 

‘The older generation had to go through actual abuse, physical harm, things like that.’

Having spoken out about his experience, Sascha has found himself contacted by several people who have detransitioned, many of whom were not as lucky to put an end to their transitioning journey before the results were irreversible. 

‘It’s criminal the way that they’re treated by society,’ Sascha shared. ‘These people have made a mistake – or in some cases didn’t really make a mistake – they were pushed down the rabbit hole by medical professionals. 

‘It’s horrendous that after they speak out, after they try to get help, they’re pushed to the side and treated badly. It’s just a huge lack of compassion.

‘They need more support from the NHS, they need more support in general. And the doctors who did this stuff to people and push them there without really checking, without really knowing, do need to be held to account.’

While Sascha has been a comforting ear to those have detransitioned, his inner circle have not been as forgiving. 

He estimates that 99 percent of his friends turned against him since he began airing his gender critical thoughts. 

‘A bunch of them wouldn’t even talk to me, they were avoiding me. And behind my back calling me a bad person,’ he explained. 

‘Or they’ll say what you’ve done is hurt the trans community. So I guess we were never really friends. I guess you just want to come here and kind of moralize on me.’  

For now, Sascha’s main concern is the impending birth of his first child with girlfriend Lucy, 32, who he met after the collapse of his 10-year marriage to lawyer Mimi Nishikawa, 40. 

He has previously credited Lucy with ‘saving his life’ not just in helping him amid his divorce but with his feelings of gender dysphoria. 

There will not, he laughed, be a gender reveal party for their unborn child but he has no preference either way. 

The couple have already picked out names, Wolfgang for a boy and Ava for a girl. 

Lucy, who previously worked as Tommy Robinson’s assistant, has the seal of approval from Sascha’s father David and as a budding photographer has even been picking up a few tips. 

David is pleased for the couple. 

‘He’s happy that there will be another moment for family,’ Sascha shares. ‘He likes my girlfriend, so that’s good. He wasn’t so much of a fan of the last one!’ 

If you have been affected by this story, you can call the Samaritans on 116 123 or visit www.samaritans.org