April Ashley: MBE for transgender campaigner

If I recall correctly....

Ragtime Rachel's picture

...this does not bestow upon her the title of "Dame", am I right? In any case, a monumental achievement for one of us.

It is difficult to imagine the trials she must have gone through as a pioneering transsexual. I can't help but think, though, that I would have gladly gone through all that if I looked as gorgeous as she did in her youth.

Livin' A Ragtime Life,
aufder.jpg

Rachel

You are right

MBE is not a Dame. Dame is, if I'm not mistaken, the equivalent award for a woman that a knighthood is for a man. It could be argued that MBE is a token decoration and the lowest. Nevertheless, it's an achievement and an acknowledgement of a job well done.

I have been privileged to meet April; she is a delightful woman.

S.

But...

Does she not look every inch the grande dame in those pictures? (And more power to her elbow - I hope I look that good when I'm seventy -seven!)

I take my hat off to her.

Xi

April Ashley

deserves to be titled as Dame April Ashley.

    Stanman
May Your Light Forever Shine

Selh-knowledge

I used her story, and her exposure, in "Sweat and Tears", largely because it mirrored my own experiences. I have never been confused, but rather in a continual state of indignation: why was I born like this? It was reading April's story, as a newspaper serial when I was around eleven years old, that showed me that there was actually a way out of my dilemma. That was the thing that, in essence, kept me alive--the existence of a way, an opportunity, to put things right in my own life.

Literally an inspiration to me.