This Pride month, as anti-trans rhetoric in the UK pushes to ever higher intensity, I want to talk about three trans scientists. I want to highlight their ground-breaking science, but also how they authentically experience gender, and tell stories that all of us should listen to.

Lynn Conway is one of the pre-eminent computer scientists of the 20th Century. In the 1960s, she worked for IBM, however, when she transitioned from male to female, she was sacked. She lived for the next 30 years as a woman, and never told anyone she was trans.

As a woman, she developed Very-Large-Scale Integration with Carver Read - vital for the development of microprocessors, and enabling mobile trechnology. However, as a woman, her contribution was often erased - like all women, she understood the true impacts of sexism.

In later life, Lynn became an activist for transgender and women's rights. She appeared in the first ever all-trans production of The Vagina Monologues (Beautiful Daughters tells the story in film-version). She regularly speaks about the invisibility of women working in Tech.

The late Ben Barres was a brilliant and much-loved neuroscientist who transitioned from female to male. Many people who met Ben were unaware of his trans history, and he thus experienced life as a scientist from female & male perspectives - he had no doubt of the differences.

In his research, Ben helped understand the vital role played by glial cells in the brain and showed that astrocytes could damage the brain - these groundbreaking discoveries have implications in understanding degenerative disorders of the brain.

Ben was outspoken about the gender discrimination he had experienced in his earlier career. As a trans man, he was a fierce advocate and ally of feminists and spent a lot of his time fighting against gender bias in science.

Rachel Padman is an astrophysicist at University of Cambridge who became the centre of a major media storm as a result of her gender identity, having transitioned from male to female.

Her research focussed on astronomical imaging, but her huge contribution has been as the Educational Lead in Cambridge's School of Physical Sciences. Her students consider her a brilliant teacher and an empathetic tutor.

In 1996, she was elected Fellow of all-women Newnham College Cambridge. Germaine Greer, feminist and member of the governing body, strongly opposed this, insisting Rachel was 'a man'. Throughout this harrassment, Padman remained calm, generous and just wanted to do her work.

Now here we are in 2020, and some people still insist trans people do not deserve their rights, that they are not authentic in their identity. Even worse, people fear-monger about trans people, insisting that, as a group, they are a threat to safety and should be marginalised.

But trans people are all around us - working, innovating, contributing, caring and just wanting to live their lives as best they can. They include brilliant scientists, they are authentic people, and deserve our respect and society's inclusion.