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This fascinating article appeared in today's i newspaper and it concerns the history of transgender people and how the law treated them. Very few knew of a court case from 1968 which was heard in private and the details hidden away. It certainly affected the conduct of the April Ashley case in 1970 and is basically about the establishment elite giving the rest of us, especially transsexual people the heave-ho until the European Court of Human Rights caused Blair's government to amend the law.
The article about a new book published by Prof Zoe Playdon about the matter is well worth reading.
https://inews.co.uk/news/long-reads/secret-court-case-50-yea...
Comments
A very beautiful woman
April Ashley went to a physician in "Algiers"? and had surgery before there even was such a thing. She and Constantine, worked at a Cabaret in Paris long before transgender even became a word. It was a favorite watering hole for the American military and the Elite of the rest of Europe and of course Brittan. She was swept off her feet by a British elite and they were married. I remember it was less than a month his parents found out and had him annul the marriage.
I have admired her and so many others for more years than I care to say. Back in the early eighties I was in contact with a few of the ladies who were pioneers in transition before Harry Benjamin and his Transgender Standards of Care screwed up everyone's life. After that everyone had to perform and go through all the hoops to even be considered for hormone therapy and every single one of us was labeled with mental dysphoria. That means we are all mentally insane.
Thanks a lot harry, I hope you find your place in Hell!
Not any different today is it? The homophobia insanity seems to prevail even in those who should know better. A higher education doesn't seem to separate them from the knuckle daggers except one thinks we should never be allowed to be ourselves or reproduce. The other thinks we should be exterminated .
Barb.
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
Barbi is so so-o right.
Harry Benjamin and his bigoted, religious nut case cronies deserve to rot in hell for the brutal dis-service he did to transgender people. May he and hordes of medical bullies that followed him rot in hell.
How to kill a transgendered person.
Force some poor devils who are only just coming to terms with their transgenderism and turn them into a laughing stock when they are only starting out on a tremendously difficult path and dreading every step where they do not pass.
Psychiatrists have been guilty of more crimes against trans people than lawyers and that's saying something. (Oops! My slip is showing.) Bev.
I agree, I'm not trans, or I
I agree, I'm not trans, or I would say I'm too scared to be. The more trans people I talk to the more I am sicked about what they go through. What really triggers me is when I'm told they do if for fun, for sexual kicks! You would have to be worst type of masochist to find that fun
Leeanna
I haven't told this before.
But to repeat myself... In 2004, when this got going in earnest, I had no thought of becoming a woman. But, the psych. folk I saw all thought I had GID, and their really nasty drugs made me believe it. For nearly the next decade I lived as a woman, and had the surgery in mid 2007. The VA, Social Security, and my retirement folk have been uncommonly kind to me. Finally, where I live, GID in 2013 was no longer seen as an illness. According to the legal folk, I am a woman, and the Surgery "Cured" me. The family have never bought into it and will likely insist that I be buried as a male.
Funny world init.
Gwen
If your records
birth certificate etc have been changed to reflect your current status, I don't see how they can. You can always prepay your funeral bill and even decide what sort of ceremony/ritual you want the funeral service to provide.
Angharad
History
The older I get, and the more I learn about British history; the more I wonder why on earth we Brits put up with the thoroughly nasty people who run the country.
Speaker
A case of
Better the devil that you know
and
The grass is not always greener on the other side.
Given the debacle unfolding on the other side of the Atlantic from Blighty, I'd rather stick with our imperfect system.
Samantha
My Counselor Asked...
Thursday, this week, she asked what I liked about being a woman. My first thought was that I liked the clothes, but I like not having to deal with yelly, angry males more. Later, cruising the internet, Quora said that women like sexy, tight, revealing clothes to attract the attention of men. Around here, the "uniform" for women seems to be black leggings, and a waist length top. In hot weather, they'll go to an Athletic bra with bare midriff. On bikes, women often wear long leg panties and Athletic bra. Often they wear leggings with no panties, so their cheeks absorb lots of rear bottom.
THEN, I found out that Portland, has more strip joints than churches. Lots of College women are "kept" by men that can afford to do that. I had no idea about all that. Being a non drinker, I haven't been in a place that serves the hard stuff. I was walking into a Fabric Store, and looked across the street at a place my boss used to try to get me to go to for lunch. I just realized that he was gay, and thought I was...
This is what I wrote to Leeanna
On her comment about being too scared to be trans:
Hi, Leeanna,
I just thought I'd tell you that since I transitioned, SRS with Stanley Biber, June 1992, I've had a better life. I knew I was a girl from 4 YO and had a lot of verb abuse and shit from my father, but I shut up about, did well in school and graduated from MIT. While/after transitioning, I've been sexually harassed then fired. I've had problems with depression since college, senior year in 1979, had some luck with antidepressants, but with the shit from work I got on social security disability and retired. I met my partner later in '92, got her on estrogen, 2nd time for her, her money ran out, then got her her surgery.
We had adventures! We stripped for a little while, I was terrible at it but, some guys liked my augmented breasts. We bought motorcycles and rode with a lesbian MC club. Both bikes broke down some and I decided bicycling would be safer and more healthful. Kim was given a therapy horse, which she still has, plus another to keep it company and her life has stabilized. We have a little house, now own it free and clear. It was a rental bought in my 1st marriage that I got in the divorce. I have a daughter from that marriage who is now a pediatrician in Orange County, CA.
I'm 72. It's been an interesting life. Depression still bothers me and my cognition and memory are declining for unknown reasons, but it's not Alzheimers.
Tell me what you think, if you'd like.
Hugs and Bright Blessings,
Renee