I WRITE following a feature I read in Starbuys' last week it was the first time I had picked up that free newspaper and it will definitely be the last.

The article concerned Big Brother 2004 under the headline Does this con deserve to win?' It referred to Nadia Almada, the eventual winner of Big brother, as The Portuguese (wo)man o' war without the balls to tell her fellow housemates about her gender reassignment surgery'.

But the writer did not have the courage to attach a name to it and so used anonymity to escape the wrath and insults views like those espoused can cause.

Why should Nadia have told them? Her reasons for going into the house to gain acceptance as a woman were never kept secret from the public. The public was not duped, and it was the public spending their money to keep Nadia in the house.

The writer also described Nadia as a gutless, fake, low rent drag act' who was going to con her way to victory. That is an insult to the intelligence of around 10 per cent of the population. We were not conned by Nadia but took her to our hearts because of her courage, not cowardice.

The writer of this diatribe is obviously ignorant of the differences between drag queens, transvestites and transsexuals.

All that is achieved by articles of this nature is to show the writer's own ignorance and prejudices, cause offence and distress to transsexuals, their friends and families and incite further prejudice and violence.

In a world where tolerance of difference is slowly becoming more widespread it saddens me that people with this kind of ignorance still exist.

No-one knows the psychological trauma that transsexuals go through while growing up in the wrong body', nor do we understand the physical trauma of taking the brave step to go through with surgery.

To read a tirade of abuse like this can only add to that trauma and make Nadia's bravery and eventual victory all the more commendable.

Ms J Dean, Overton.