Hello Supporters!
Welcome once again to my ‘Shed’ — the blog space which Unbound provides for creators of their wonderful books to talk directly to YOU: the people who have pledged to see them produced.
You’re seeing this message because you’ve already pledged support for ‘Trans: A British History’. As promised, I’m using the facility to give that bit extra back to you all for doing so. Most of these Shed posts won’t be visible to casual visitors to the web page. They are ‘supporter-only’. So welcome to this exclusive club.
In months to come, I’ll be talking about the writing tools I use and the process of managing 25 very diverse (and busy) contributors. I’ll also be sharing excerpts and drafts. You can use the comments to feed back too. I want the development of this unique and collectively-written book to be inclusive.
Last week I promised that I would use this space to reveal to you all the names and details of the 25 contributors. We decided to tease you in the book’s synopsis, but that was just to allow me to get some vital admin completed, and also to build a bit of creative tension. You’re now the first people to know!
Before I get to that list, I just want to say a brief word about the campaign. So far it has been amazing — well, you’re here for a start! In one week the support has grown from a standing start to reach 35% of the book’s funding goal. Almost 150 people have made pledges. That’s an indication of how much people want to see this book produced. And who can blame them? Nobody has ever done this before in the UK. It’s a genuine first. And one reason for that is the difficulty that historians would normally have in sourcing the story. That’s where the 25 contributors come in. They are the people who’ll make this book compelling.
But let’s not get complacent. We are one third of the way to the funding goal, but that still means we have to achieve the same twice more. We have to find up to 300 more people like yourselves who are equally keen to see this history down at their bookshop or library. That’s where I hope you can all help. If you all persuaded just one person you know to equal your own pledge, that would project us to 70% and we’d be nearly home.
Today is the start of LGBT History Month, and that’s a perfect opportunity for persuading people to come on board. This book goes to the very heart of what the month long focus on LGBT history is all about. It’s about revealing and teaching the hidden history of LGBT people. Books like ‘Trans: A British History’ are the lifeblood of the mission. We want to put this book in people's hands, which is why I'm working with a publisher that makes bestsellers (like 'Letters of Note') and gets Booker shortlisted titles (like ‘The Wake’). There is precious little UK trans history in the literature right now. We can only change that with the support YOU give to get this book off the ground.
OK. Lecture over. Now to the big reveal…
I explained in last week’s post how I came to the decision about focussing this book on the last fifty years. I’ll certainly mention the individuals who came before, but the 1960s were a very special moment in history. That was when trans people stopped being just singular individuals and began creating safe spaces and groups to meet and support one-another.
The beginning of the contributor list reflects the need to tell the story of those tentative beginnings…
Alice Purnell OBE — Co-founded the Beaumont Society in the 1960s and later the Gender Trust in 1990. She’ll be writing about those milestones and the bits in-between.
Adrienne Nash — Not a familiar name to many, but Adrienne is penning a chapter about an ordinary trans person like her in the 1960s, and the struggles in dealing with doctors and psychiatrists who were either completely non-plussed or wanted to experimentally put her to sleep for three months (a bit like switching your computer off and back on again in the hope that fixes it).
Dr Stuart Lorimer — Senior Clinician at Charing Cross Gender Identity Clinic (GIC). I’ve persuaded him to do some research in the archives and tell the history of that clinic and how GICs came to be the way they are today. That’s something which I thought might mystify a lot of outsiders
Carol Steele — A founding organiser of the Manchester TV/TS group, which first met in a back room in “Camp Street” Salford in the mid 1970s. Carol has an extensive experience with local support groups through to the present day, so her contribution will chart their development.
Linda Bellos OBE — The first name in the list to perhaps surprise many people. But this book will not only feature trans writers. Linda is a Jewish-Nigerian feminist lesbian former politician (she reckons she beats me in the diversity box-ticking olympics). She was active in second wave feminism from the early 1970s and was actually in a relationship with trans-critical feminist academic Sheila Jeffries at one time. Linda is a great trans ally nowadays and rose to the challenge when I asked her to write a chapter explaining where it all went sour between some feminists and the body politic of trans people. She promises it will be controversial and my ambition is that her contribution will serve to at least partially explain where all that animus came from.
Kate Hutchinson — Rock Musician, LGBT History Month board member and Stonewall advisor Kate transitioned during the 1980s. That period was, for many trans people, the decade that time forgot. It was a difficult time and my brief to Kate is to write about that experience within the Rock circle.
Jane Fae — Jane is a feminist and writer on issues of political and sexual liberty. In 2010, she was author of Beyond the Circle, for which she was awarded the title Erotic Writer of the Year. She has written widely on subjects including climate change, medical ethics and online censorship but our brief to her is to forensically examine the history and evolution of how the press have reported trans people. This again is a topic which may mystify newcomers to trans politics, and our hope is that Jane’s contribution may explain why trans people today can sometimes seem to be on a short fuse.
Sue Sanders OBE — Sue is a co-founder of both Schools Out and LGBT History Month, with a lesbian activist history which stretches back to the days when gay and lesbian teachers could be sacked when their sexual orientation was revealed. Sue is an example of an activist who needed to make the personal conversion from talking about ‘LGB’ and into ‘LGBT’ — a phenomenon of the mid 90s. As a teacher, Sue was in the direct firing line of the notorious ‘Section 28’ in 1988 — a piece of legislation whose rhetoric was totally at odds with what the government was telling the European Court of Human Rights about trans people at the same time. Sue’s contribution is in the book to provide that historical context and remind readers that trans affairs didn’t occur in isolation.
Jacqui Gavin — Jacqui is today a very senior civil servant. She’s the sort of person who is on regular speaking terms with ministers and permanent secretaries. Jacqui worked for a time as a fashion model — a role which she could only maintain at the time by living in so-called ‘stealth’. Many of the writers in this book transitioned and lived lives where most people knew of their trans background and I decided it would be invaluable to have her perspective on living life in a different way out of necessity, where your whole world could be destroyed by exposure. Jacqui has also got some fantastic insights into the other side of later trans activism — how it was seen inside government.
Stephen Whittle OBE — A founding member of Press for Change in 1992, inspired to become a lawyer by the case of Mark Rees at the European Court of Human Rights in 1987. Mark will also be featured.
Former MP Dr Lynne Jones — Who set up the Parliamentary Forum on Transsexualism in 1995. This group had a pivotal role in bringing politicians from across all parties together with activists and clinicians to develop the case for legislative advances. She stepped down as an MP in 2010 but has an unrivalled inside knowledge of the campaign as seen from Westminster
Madeleine Rees OBE — One of the lawyers very much involved in presenting key cases on behalf of trans people in the courts during the 1990s. Madeleine was at the centre of a landmark case which brought about employment protection for trans people in both the UK and throughout the European Union. Like some of the other contributions by cisgender allies, Madeleine’s chapter is there to provide a 360 degree perspective on how trans rights came about.
That brings us to roughly half way through the list and to the latter end of the 1990s in terms of the historical narrative. As it’s a long list I propose to stop here and complete the reveal next week.
Until then, do please keep encouraging friends and associates to pledge. You can now tell them just how unique and comprehensive this anthology of expert testimony is going to be.
Best wishes
Christine Burns MBE