How the other half lives

September 28, 2009

http://www.theage.com.au/news/entertainment/arts/how-the-other-half-lives/2009/09/27/1253989822843.html

Vanessa Van Durme began life as a man, became one of Belgium's first post-operative transsexuals and is now wowing audiences with the stage version of her tale. Stephanie Bunbury reports.

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Van Durme is 62. At 27, she took a wad of cash to Casablanca, handed over her jewellery when the bargaining started and soon became one of the first Belgians to have a sex change. She was already living as a woman, which meant she had had to give up her prized position as an actor with the prestigious theatre company Nederlands Toneel Gent. She worked as a prostitute. They all did, the men dressed as women, even those with strings of degrees.