Young, male and with an inner drag queen screaming to get out, Ewan Armstrong couldn’t wait to escape the restrictions of his Stornoway life.

Eventually, bags packed, he sashayed into a new life, with shoulder-length Rita Hayworth waves, an overflowing make-up bag, floaty black chiffon gown and the name ‘Duchess’.

“I left,” he says, dabbing on an extra layer of eye shadow, “and never looked back.”

From her Stornoway home, Amanda MacLennan drove her car to the Butt of Lewis, as far north as it’s possible to go on the island, and where the tall, slender lighthouse has shone as a beacon of hope to those battling turbulent seas since 1862.

After four years of trying to figure out her feelings, the 18-year-old watched the waves pummel the rocks and wondered if she should just keep on driving.

Instead, she went home and told her father she is a lesbian. “He said ‘You never were very girly, where you?’,” she recalls. “I said ‘No, not really’, and that was it.”

Now the complex challenges faced by them and other LGBT+ people living in tight-knit and often deeply religious communities, are to be revealed in a new BBC Alba documentary.

Due to be screened on Monday night as part of the Trusadh series, Bogha-Froise (Pride) features frank and highly personal interviews from LGBT+ people, which shed stark light on fears their sexuality could spark stigma, bullying, religious wrath and estrangement from loved ones.

It also highlights how, while recent ground-breaking Pride marches through the streets of Stornoway and Inverness have brought hope, they were played out against years of deep personal conflict and fear of backlash from tight-knit communities which have led some to flee their rural homes or consider taking their own lives.

In one alarming segment, a Free Church (Continuing) minister, Rev. Graeme Craig, is filmed against the backdrop of Stornoway’s colourful Pride march, which he brands “shameful”.

He tells the documentary makers: “What society and everyone needs is a return to what is basic biology, more faithful monogamous heterosexual marriage.

“We are concerned for people and want them to live in the biblical way and turn away from this lifestyle which is obviously corrupting minds and society.”

The documentary focuses on the Pride marches which, in Stornoway in particular, were seen as a major cultural shift towards a new acceptance of gay and trans people on an island regarded as a stronghold for the ‘Wee Frees’ church.

However there are concerns that despite a new openness, deep set attitudes and prejudices may take years to overcome.

“Never in my life did I think it would happen on Stornoway and still to this day I have to pinch myself,” said Amanda, 44, who took part in the Pride celebration.

She adds: “This is the last Wee Free stronghold. I always say we’re 20 years behind the norm here.

“Even when I went out as a kid on a Sunday you were told not to make a noise. And although it’s not the case so much now, there are still pockets where people respect the Sabbath a bit more.

“For me, it’s not religion and Christianity that’s the issue, it’s what I call ‘churchiality’. A lot of people think they are members of the church and that means they have to be respected, but it’s how you live your life and how you treat others that really matters.”

She adds: “I think we need to wait for another couple of generations to die out before we can be who we want to be without the fear of disappointing them.”

The film follows Ewan on an emotional journey back to Lewis after 11 years away from the island, to appear as drag queen Duchess at the forefront of the Stornoway parade.

Badly bullied at school, he reveals feeling driven to return to the island to “face his demons” and lead the parade in the hope of offering visible support to other LGBT people struggling in the same way he did.

“I couldn’t wait to get out,” he says, recalling leaving the island in 2007 with just £160 in his bank account. “I was walking around the castle grounds staring out to sea knowing there was life on the other side.

“It was finally finding your tribe and people you can connect with. I get on quite well with my direct family but others I have nothing in common with other than family tree and genes.

“You choose your own family,” he adds.

He returned for Pride in Stornoway aware he might encounter his childhood tormentors.

But, he says: “It would be horrible for me to miss it based on my personal wants. It’s about giving hope.

“It’s about going up and letting someone else know it’s okay to be them.

“The one thing keeping kids going now is knowing they can get off the island,” he adds.

The first Western Isle Pride March was held in Stornoway in 2018, with the second one taking place in June this year.

In the programme, SNP MP for East Dunbartonshire, former BBC Breakfast presenter John Nicolson, who has Hebridean and Orcadian family roots, tells how he had to walk away from the chance of a diplomatic service job because he would have had to sign a declaration confirming he was not a homosexual.

He later shocked his BBC bosses after confirming in a newspaper interview that he was gay – the first BBC employee to come out.

He said: “I tried not to lie about it, I had my own bizarre moral code where I thought don’t lie about it but don’t publicise it at the same time,” he says in the programme.

“I think I would have found it difficult to get a job as openly gay. Being gay had very real consequences in all areas of your life.”

The programme also highlights positive experiences, including that of Malin Lewis, 19, from Stornoway, who told friends and family that he identifies as gender-fluid three years ago. “They were so supportive and lovely about it, and only ever have been supportive,” he says.

“But you are aware of ministers and people in the community and you do expect them to have an issue with it.

“You can never anticipate how someone will receive it. Some people get it and others struggle and don’t get it, or they don’t care.”

He performed in an LGBT+ traditional music event at this year’s Celtic Connections, thought to be the first of its kind that connected gaelic music with gay culture.

The programme also reveals how folk musician Rona Wilkie and her partner Malik ‘practised’ being out publicly in Norway feeling attitudes there were more enlightened towards gay couples, and of her struggle with her faith which saw her stop attending the Free Church six years ago.

“That’s very difficult for me as that’s how I was raised,” she says. “I am still a Christian. That is what is more important.”

She adds: “I had to consider my faith and how the two would work together.

“Why would God be angry about something so positive, to be in a relationship full of love?”

Trusadh is on BBC Alba on Monday at 9.30pm