Guardian Unlimited, UK
Stephen Whittle: Body of workStephen Whittle knew from an early age that he wanted to teach. He
also knew that he wanted to be a man. There was one rather
fundamental problem, however. He had been born female. "I imagined
myself becoming one of those spinsterish teachers I'd read about in
Bunty, in tweed skirts and twin sets," he grins, discreetly dabbing
cappuccino froth from his slightly greying beard.
We are in a bar in his home city, just over the road from Manchester
Metropolitan University where he is now Stephen Whittle OBE,
professor of equalities law. The woman he once was has gone
forever. "When I look in the mirror," he says, "I can't conceive of
my old self. In fact, I can't bring myself to mention her name - even
to my kids, and they're dying to know."
He has four children and is all too evidently devoted to them.
Indeed, he arrives slightly late for our appointment because he has
had to take his daughter to the doctor. We meet shortly before one of
his frequent trips to New York, in his capacity as president-elect of
the World Professionals Association for Transgender Health. "There's
going to be a symposium of transsexual lawyers and academics," he
says. "We need to review where we are and how far we've come."
The answer, in the UK at least, would appear to be a very long way in
the 10 years since he co-founded the pressure group Press for Change.
And the Manchester of the 1970s, where he first became active in the
politics of gender and sexual orientation, seems light years away.
