Boxing supremo Kellie Maloney grew up in a tough neighbourhood where you were picked on for the wrong colour hair.

Yet from the age of three, and born a boy, she realised there was something different about her and it took years to come to terms with that.

She made it public by 2014 that she was undergoing gender reassignment, changing to a woman.

Ms Maloney spoke candidly to the KentOnline as she opened Gender, a two-week LGBT art exhibition at My Gallery in Dover.

She said: "I grew up in a neighbourhood where if you had ginger hair you were picked on.

"So obviously I hid my own gender issues because I was terrified. I didn't understand what I was going through until later in life.

"Once I realised it was very hard to admit to it because of the way I had been brought up in my environment. It took a long time."

Kellie Maloney, who now has a home in Herne Bay, was originally Frank Maloney, born to Irish parents in Peckham, south London, in 1953.

Ms Maloney, who became famous as a boxing promoter, boxed as a child and managed Lennox Lewis.

She said; "I knew I was different from the age of three but I didn't know what it was because nobody knew in those days or talked about it.

"When I was 16 I read an article and I thought 'God this is me.' "

April Ashley, a model, was outed as a transgender woman by the Sunday People newspaper in 1961.

She is one of the earliest British people known to have had gender reassignment surgery.

Ms Maloney said: "The more I fought it the more angry I became and I was destroying the people around it.

So one day I had to look in the mirror, face the truth and make that decision.

"Now I'm a happier person and it's the real me."

Ms Maloney had the added complication of being in the ultra-macho world of boxing.

When she announced the change Lewis, who was three times world heavyweight champion, was initially shocked but said he respected her decision.

But Ms Maloney admitted she had lost some friends in boxing circles.

She told the Mercury: "Some accepted it, some haven't been able to accept it. I've lost some friends on the way, I've lost some colleagues. But to me it's their loss.

"I've also made some nice new friends and met lots of other people on my incredible journey.

"I've dealt with it , my family have dealt with it.

"Probably the hardest part was telling my family, my ex-partner and then having to tell my children."

Even so she explained: "I had to change my outer wrapping to become happy and to be able to watch by children grow up and to become a grandparent."

She admitted dark moments when she was so anguished that she attempted suicide.

She explained: "If I could have stopped my transition I would have but you can't. I attempted suicide a couple of times because I was depressed, because I didn't want anybody to know.

"But I had to realise that suicide is a coward's way out because my children would never have learned the truth about their dad.

"Now they've learned they accept it.

"I certainly didn't wake up and want to be a woman. I was born with it and I had no choice."

Ms Maloney agrees that there has been an improvement in attitudes towards the LGBT community.

The young male Frank Maloney in the 70s would have seen widespread prejudice, even 10 years after homosexuality had been decriminalised.

She said; "I think attitudes have improved. I still think there's a long way to go. Young people are a lot more accepting that the young people when I grew up.

"Once you can face yourself you can then go out into the community and I think you can help and educate other people.

"Young children are not born with any type of prejudice at all. It's installed in them by their parents and society.

"There are always people that will hate and not accept certain people.

"That is a terrifying thing because we all enter this world the same way and we're all leaving the world in the same way, in a wooden box.

"I had to make a very big decision and change my whole life but what I did didn't affect the guy next door.

"As long as we live within the law of the country and respect each other we should be allowed to live our lives."

Kellie Maloney is a former Ukip politician who also has a home in Portugal.

She appeared on Celebrity Big Brother in August and September 2014, by which time she had changed her identity.

She continues to some extent to have a role in boxing as an advisor but is also a public speaker and does charity work.

Gender, by Scarlet Isherwood, has pictures showing lipsticks with the containers showing the image of a mouth in a ball gag.

The people portrayed are usually those she personally knows.

They tend to be members of the LGBT community.

However, their eyes are blanked out so that viewers are more likely to be reminded of someone they personally know.

Ms Isherwood, 19, of Hythe, told KentOnline: "The lipsticks is representative of how a lot of people hide themselves behind things like make-up because they are really ashamed of who they are and how they look.

"The ball gags symbolise a deep kind of sexuality. It's looking at how people display themselves.

"All of the lipsticks and the tubes are different colours.

"That is my take on how we are all different and how we are all still the same because we are all still hiding and very insecure.

"But I'm hoping with this exhibition that it will help bring more people forward and give a lot more pride to how people are on the inside."

Ms Isherwood explained that overall the exhibition is about how everyone is connected through sexuality and love and how people should not be ashamed of who they are.

"It shouldn't matter how a person wants to identify, what matters is that person. Everybody should be free to express how they want to be."

Gender, by Scarlet Isherhwood, continues until Saturday, June 28 at My Gallery Waterloo Crescent, Dover.

My Gallery is run by Dover smART, a charity supporting vulnerable and disadvantaged people through community arts projects.

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