There was a blog about Angela Morley here yesterday but it disappeared before I could comment. Andrea DiMaggio highlighted the life of an early (modern) TG woman, who started life as Wally Stott and transitioned in her late forties, about in the early 70s, IIRC.
She was well known in the British musical world before and became even more well-known in the USA following her transition. I just wanted to add how courageous she must have been to continue in her career in the spotlight, as it were, after changing her gender.
That must have taken real guts and although she didn't trumpet it she didn't shy away from it either. Talent will shine. Being transgender doesn't extinguish it.
Vale Ms. Morley. Thank you for being you.
Comments
An example to be followed
In my opinion the example Angela Morley set with her transition and life post-transition is one we should all strive to follow. She got on with her professional work and even strove to excel at what she did. But she never tried to compete, much less sought out the media lime-light. In fact, even though she was an accomplished orchestra conductor, she tried to stay away from conducting on the public stage, because she did NOT want to be sensationalized by the boulevard or yellow press (at that time the equivalent to social media today). It is a testament to her personal low profile that she was distinguished with several high-profile awards in show business.
What is little known, is that Angela Morley married her second wife (her first wife died prior to her transition) just weeks or days prior to her gender surgery in June 1970. They had a mutually supportive relationship that lasted almost 39 years until her death in January 2009. Having established herself as a composer and conductor in and around London UK, she moved with her wife to Los Angeles in 1979, and in 1994 they relocated to Scottsdale Arizona.
Angela Morley did not live in stealth. But she also avoided notoriety by keeping a low profile. Living openly as a lesbian couple in the 1970s and 1980s is no mean feat, considering that in many jurisdictions same-sex relationships were still criminalized.
If all our trans-siblings had followed the example set by Angela Morley (as well as Lynn Conway), unlike some who went to court or so-called reality shows, we would not have the current socio-political backlash that is currently threatening to set our common struggle for identity recognition and affirming health-care back by almost one hundred years.
Maybe
But also, maybe not.
Because of a few notable examples -- people who stuck their necks out and their heads up and went public about being trans -- the issue was brought out of the darkness. That had consequences, but many of them were good. For instance, there was (and is) far more information available to trans kids today than there was, certainly, when I was growing up. They have a chance to understand the feelings that overwhelm them, rather than simply feeling, as I did, that they are weird as shit and about as lovable. They started to have the opportunity to be open about their feelings and not believe that they would be subject to universal ridicule. As a result, more of our sisters (and brothers) came out of the egg.
And yes, that increasing visibility made us all bigger targets. Put us higher up in the list of the "enemies of the people." Gosh, we got millions of dollars devoted to us in the last US presidential campaign! Yet it is the nature of authoritarian movements that internal enemies be identified and purged. We may be higher on the list right now, but rest assured . . . we'd have been on the list regardless. And given enough time, the fascists would get around to us.
— Emma