Fay Louise Purdham, 28, froze her sperm before undergoing gender reassignment surgery, and is now seeking a surrogate to carry her child, whom she plans to raise as the mother.
“I knew I wanted to become a mum even before I wanted to become a woman. I have been on my transition for years to become the woman I truly am. I have set my page up to help me on my journey to become a mother, and have my dreams come true.”
Purdham has become known in the UK for her modelling, she recently came 3rd in the Miss Transgender UK Finals 2015, and is also having her journey filmed by the BBC for a documentary. She is now trying to raise £100,000 to have a biological child on a GoFundMe page here.
Purdham, like many others, has shared how difficult growing up as the wrong gender was. “I was told by so many people that I was gay, I felt that it was imposed upon me. But I wasn’t, I was transgender.” When she was 16 she spoke to her GP about her gender identity and intention to transition, at 19 she changed her name legally, by deed poll, and at 21 she underwent her first surgery, which was to remove her Adam’s apple.
Purdham has also commented on Caitlyn Jenner, who is now considered a spokesperson for the transgender community. “I wish Caitlyn had supported the transgender community before she was brave enough to publicly come out. She could have used her profile as Bruce to support the cause. She looks great, but not everyone has the money that she has to make that transition. She’s only just transitioned, but people have been doing it for years.”
Purdham has shared her journey so far with the BBC, and will hopefully continue to do so as she attempts to become a biological mother to her child. She can not only show other trans people beginning transition what is possible, but raise awareness for the trans* community and erase the image/stereotype that has been a detriment to trans people for years.
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Two points in disagreement:
– (1) Politically-speaking, I am of the ‘Negative Population Growth’ perspective – there are already too many people populating Planet Earth. I am fully-supportive of adoptions and foster care. If a couple is so desperate for children, those groups (adoption and foster care) should be among the top of every parental list. I’d demand more but unfortuneately, we live within a Constitution that would prohibit ‘Mr. Snippy Snip’ from being imposed upon randomly-selected adults of child-bearing age.
– (2) I clearly do NOT ‘consider’ Caitlyn Jenner a ‘spokesperson for the transgender community’. Or at least to write here, I do NOT ‘consider’ her a ‘spokesperson’ for me. I see her as a mere celebrity using her publicity to enrich her personal self but as yet have not seen her accomplish much for anyone else. Nor have I been made aware that she has ever endured the crises we ‘little people’ endure from childhood, through transition, and on a daily basis. I am not aware that she has ever been fired from a job because she is a transsexual and the result of that firing left her near-destitute and homeless. She can use her multi-million Dollar publicity income to develop non-profits support transsexual causes and issues and then maybe I’ll consider her a little better.
Jump on me if you wish. I endured through 11 years of my transition without celebrity benefit (1974 – 1985). I was fired from two different career jobs when employer management summoned me to their offices and explicitly told me they are firing me because I am transsexual (1985 and 2010); it mattered not the least that I had stellar work histories, my presence was their issue.
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I agree with both of your points. Jenner does not speak for me nor does she represent the experiences of the majority of the trans community. She was never forced into sex work to make ends meet and I doubt anyone will ever beat her arse for being trans.
I watched the entire season of “I am Cait” shows . I agree with all your points above. That said, I found several redeeming qualities from Caitlyn portrayed on the show:
1) She consistently has said she is not a spokesperson for the community
2) She did her best to educate herself on the struggles of average transgender people
3) She featured those average struggles on the show
4) She brought educators on the show as well as Kate Bornstein to give her perspective
5) All along she exposed her inadequacies. While the makeup and hair was thick and polished, she never once tried to cover up how she came across to the average transgender person.
6) she was called out DURING the show for several faux pas, including referring to transgender people as they instead of we. One episode was Caitlyn coming to terms with accepting she must embrace the community as “we”.
7) Overall it brought much needed attention to transgender struggles and broke several barriers.
As far as long term redeeming effects of the show? IDK. Honestly , it was not a great show from a ratings perspective and was pretty poorly edited for story lines. Overall, I would like to say she did some good.