Jamie Wallis has become the first MP to come out as trans, revealing he was diagnosed with gender dysphoria from a young age but wanted to show “how important it is to be yourself”. In a statement posted hours after Boris Johnson reportedly joked about people who are transgender, the Bridgend MP said he had “never lived my truth” but would try to start by “telling everyone” about his identity. Wallis said he had been raped last year, and that he had been blackmailed not long after being elected to the House of Commons. The statement was commended for its bravery by Johnson and opposition party leaders in the Commons. “I had no intention of ever sharing this with you,” Wallis wrote in a post on his website published early on Wednesday morning. “I always imagined I would leave politics well before I ever said this out loud.” Wallis, who said he would continue to use he/him pronouns, said there had been a “close call” where his trans identity had nearly been made public in April 2020 by a blackmailer who sent photographs to family members. The blackmailer demanded £50,000 to keep quiet, Wallis said, but after the police got involved, the perpetrator pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years and nine months in prison. “For a while it seemed as though I would be able to get on with things and move on,” Wallis wrote. “Being an MP and hiding something like this was always going to be tough, but I arrogantly assumed I was up for it. Well, I’m not.” In September 2021, Wallis said he “hooked up” with someone he met online, and declined sex on the basis the other person would not wear a condom. Wallis said: “He chose to rape me.” “I have not been myself since this incident and I don’t think I will ever recover,” he said. “It is not something you ever forget, and it is not something you ever move on from. “Since then things have really taken a tumble. I am not OK.” Wallis crashed a car a few months later and said he fled the scene “because I was terrified”. He added that he had PTSD and so had “no idea what I was doing except I was overcome by an overwhelming sense of fear”. Speaking of the dinner, which Johnson hosted at a hotel in Westminster on Tuesday night, Wallis said he had been “reminded of the incredible support those you work with can provide”. “Also, I was reminded how important it is to be yourself. I have never lived my truth and I’m not sure how. Perhaps it starts with telling everyone.” At the dinner, Johnson reportedly began an address to Tory MPs by trying to joke about the Labour leader Keir Starmer’s defence that some people with male genitalia could still be treated as trans women, if that was the gender they identified with. The prime minister allegedly said: “Good evening ladies and gentlemen, or as Keir Starmer would put it, people who are assigned female or male at birth.” Johnson later told Wallis in the Commons he would “give you the support that you need to live freely as yourself”, and posted a tweet praising him for the “immense amount of courage” he had shown. But the prime minister was urged to apologise for his previous remarks. Ben Howlett, a former Conservative MP and chair of an independent LGBT+ commission, told the Guardian: “Actions speak louder than words. Making a joke at the expense of trans people in private then saying that he supports trans people on social media raises more than an eyebrow. It needs to be called out and he should apologise.” The Tory Reform Group also said trans rights “should not be ridiculed in flippant after-dinner jokes”. It added: “The government needs to treat LGBT people with kindness rather than as punchlines.” Wallis said he had been “overwhelmed by the kindness and support” in response to his announcement. “I remain the same person I was yesterday,” he added. “For the time being, I will continue to present as I always have and will use he/him/his pronouns.” The presence of a Conservative MP with an avowedly trans identity might dampen prospects for a culture war some Tory figures believe should be pursued for political purposes.