A transgender woman standing for election in West Belfast has said she hopes to champion equality for all minority groups.
Ash Jones, a trans rights activist and punk musician, is the Green Party's candidate for the Colin area in May's council elections.
The 25-year-old opened up about coming out as transgender and told of the discrimination and street harassment she has faced.
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She shared her experiences to coincide with International Transgender Day of Visibility, which aims to raise awareness of issues affecting trans and non-binary people.
Ms Jones said becoming the first out trans elected representative on the island of Ireland would send a clear message that "Belfast supports equality".
"What I've always said from my music through to politics is that if one young trans person feels less alone as a result of what I've done, then I've done well," she added.
"So if there's even one person that feels a little bit more seen as a result of the campaign then I'll find that a success."
Ms Jones fronts local punk band Strange New Places and her job involves helping people with disabilities access the arts sector.
She said she hoped her campaign would help build "momentum around inclusiveness and accessibility for minorities of all sorts, not just trans people".
Ms Jones, who described her gender identity as a trans woman but also non-binary, grew up mainly in Enniskillen in Co Fermanagh and has lived in Belfast since the age of 18.
"I was assigned male at birth, but it wasn't until I was 18 and moved to Belfast that I came out and realised that I didn't identify with that part of myself, and decided to start transitioning at that point as that realisation happened," she said.
She said the "ability to transition and to live genuinely is a life-saving measure" for many trans people.
"Not all trans people will want to go through hormonal or other treatments, but for those that do, it's often a life-saving measure because of the extent of discomfort that we feel or are made to feel with ourselves, and the persistent harassment from being visibly trans creates worse outcomes for our community," she said.
"I think if I had not had the opportunity to transition then I would be in a much worse mental state, and I have suffered with depression before, and I think that would only worsen if I was forced to live in a way that is antithetical to who I am."
Describing some of the discrimination she has faced, Ms Jones said: "I've been shouted at in the street, and I've been harassed and called names and I've been put into sort of online hate compilations against trans people."
But she said these experiences are "relatively tame" as many trans people have "suffered worse".
"I have a very supportive family and a good friend group, but a lot of people are in a more isolated and more dangerous position," she said.
Ms Jones sought to dispel a "culture war panic" in some of the public debate around trans issues.
She said it can lead people into a "rabbit hole of blaming trans people for a lot of things in a conspiratorial way".
Ms Jones responded that trans women "aren't a threat" when asked about debate over matters such as trans women accessing women's spaces.
She said: "Trans women aren't a threat to cis women. We have, for the most part, the same needs and the same desires for safety. Trans women in male spaces are a lot more likely to be harassed and to be abused, to be physically assaulted apart from anything else, and trans women's presence in women's spaces generally is no threat to safety.
"I understand when people say, 'What if men who want to abuse this come into this space?', but they don't need that excuse in order to invade those spaces.
"So I think conflating those two issues is something that anti-trans peddlers have sort of been trying to force together the idea of trans people and abusers in a way that is cynical and does intense damage to the trans community."
Ms Jones added: "Everyone knows a trans person, whether they know it or not. We pass people in the street, we're in workplaces, in schools.
"The idea that this is a sort of recent development that trans people exist is not true. We are here and we just want to live genuinely and happily, in a safe environment."
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