Back in 1972, a group of transsexuals and transvestites, meeting regularly in Notting Hill, in London, as a branch of the new Gay Liberation Front, wrote a piece for the activist pamphlet Lesbian Come Together. As many as 60,000 people in Britain were taking cross-sex hormones, they stated; more wanted to do so but were refused by doctors. They described the stigma to which trans people were subjected by the medical profession when accessing hormone and surgical treatment, and their struggle for autonomy: ‘the psychiatrists who electro-shock us think we’re pathetic or tragic … one sister said
...more
