Heros, lest we forget.

[mavieenrose]

I feel humbled and eternally grateful to people like Stephen Whittle OBE of the UK pressure group Press For Change.  Thanks to his personal and campaigning struggles people like me are protected at work, can have their birth certificate corrected and can basically live as ordinary members of society.

I have nothing but total respect and immense love for him and others like him.

If you'd like to learn more:  http://www.pfc.org.uk/node/1504

In solidarity
MVER XXX

[Laura Eva B]

Let's not forget that Stephen (OBE) was part of a foursome of PFC campaigners  ....

Claire Mc'Nab (Irish so no OBE/MBE), Christine Burns MBE, and Dr Angela Clayton MBE.

(MBE / OBEs are honours given by the Queen for selfless community achievement and "good work", though the prime minister contributes his own "list" so there can be political bias !)

Angela lives just 8 miles from me and we've had dinners together, and she's helped me quite a bit ....

PFCs is still doing wonderful work for us (equality in provision of goods and services right now) .... but seems to have lost direction a bit in incorporating itself into UK irrellevant pan-European groups that fight for the rights of a "rainbow coalition" including "crossressers, TVs, drag queens" (their words !). 

Also PFC is not democratic, all appointments are made by the "self-appointed" board, so the wider community cannot have an independent say in the direction we want our campaigns to go.  And as a political / parliamentary lobbying group it can never be a charity, which would help its fundraising, but force it to adapt democratic principles !

P.S. Ma vie ... as an "honorary" French woman, and posting this on the F2M talk section, I was half expecting to see a eulogy to Jeanne d'Arc, and that what happened in Rouen in 1431 was an early example of transphobia  !!!!  (of course it wasn't as my best friend who did his thesis on the 100 years war has explained so often when we were in that part of France ....)

Why don't we post of our "heros" from history, brave TS pioneers, media personalities, campaigners ....

Laura x

[Buffy]

Yes,

I totally agree with what has been written above.

The people named have campaigned for the rights of Transsexual People (and still are) in not only the UK but also Europe.

For me you can also add the name of Christine Goodwin to that list. It was her brave stance which basically invovled taking the UK Government to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg after the UK legal system had refused her request to have her birth certificate changed following submission in 1995.

On 11th July 2002, the ECHR ruled that the UK Government was in breach of her Human Rights and where then bound (within a 3 year period) to change the law in the UK, giving Transsexual people the right to change their birth certificates.

http://www.hrw.org/lgbt/pdf/goodwin.pdf

In early 2003 the UK Government published its white paper on Gender recogntion and this following its passage through the UK parliamentary System became the Gender Recognition Act 2004, from which we all now benefit. It was given royal ascent on 1st July 2004

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2004/20040007.htm

I applied and received my new birth certificate in Jan 2006.

The ruling of the ECHR (which is the top Court in the EU) also had an everlasting effect on EU countries as many of these have (or are on the way) to having Similar legislation in their own countries.

So... Christine Goodwin is a heroine in my eyes.

Buffy

[mavieenrose]

Let's not forget that Stephen (OBE) was part of a foursome of PFC campaigners  ....

Claire Mc'Nab (Irish so no OBE/MBE), Christine Burns MBE, and Dr Angela Clayton MBE.

Hi Laura,

Yes of course, you are so right and I totally agree.  Stephen is one of so many pioneers over the years, decades and centuries. 

It just happens that he's always been a personal symbol of hope for me in my life and what appeals to me specifically about this interview with him is it's very personal nature. 

We get to learn not just about a (trans)man, but also about a son, a brother, a colleague, a husband, a father. He is so very exceptional and yet at the same time so very ordinary and when I listen to Stephen talking, it's like having a close male friend or older brother there in the room with me.

As for Jeanne d'Arc, yes it's true that here s/he is seen as an icon of the trans community, but just don't tell Jean-Marie le Pen of the Front National who also idolises her/him for more nationalistic reasons...

MVER XX