V&A: The Unnatural History Museum

'Corporate greed, government inaction and public indifference make Aids a political crisis'.

Gran Fury's 1989 détournement of a vacuous Benneton ad for Act Up is part of the V&A's LGBT collection.

The V&A are hosting a LGBTQ Tour of the museum each last Saturday of the month, starting tomorrow.

For more queer artefacts and stuff see Out In The Museum.

'My Heroes', April Ashley by Grayson Perry.

PS You may also enjoy the British Museum's Same-sex desire and gender identity trail and website.

April Ashley: Portrait Of A Lady

Two months after April Ashley entered the world at the age of 25, she lost her virginity – to an American man called Skippy. “It was 14 July 1960, Bastille Day. Afterwards I was crying with happiness. I remember Skippy opening the window and everyone was honking their horns and waving flags and he said, 'Look, the whole of Paris is celebrating the loss of your virginity.’”

I bring up a rumour that she was pretty promiscuous for a while after the sex change. Again she looks at me from under one arched eyebrow. “Wouldn’t you have been?” she says dryly.

Back in London, she began to get modelling work. For a time she wasVogue’s most popular underwear model. But this honeymoon period didn’t last long. A year later she was the subject of an exposé in the Sunday People revealing that she’d once been a man – she was betrayed by a friend for just £5.

“And I never got another modelling job from that day to this. Six months’ worth of booking was cancelled overnight.” She’d already been hired to appear in the film The Road to Hong Kong with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope when the story broke. “But when the film came out only my back was seen and my name didn’t even appear on the credits.”

Elvis, John Prescott  And Me: An interview with April Ashley, Britain's first transsexual, Daily Telegraph.

Fifty years on, the tabloids still think it's good fun to out transsexuals.

An exhibition, April Ashley: Portrait of a lady, opens today at the Museum of Liverpool, it is free.

Transphobia: 15 Points

1. The media has a long history of humiliating and undermining trans people

2. Transphobia cuts across left/liberal and conservative media

3. Most commentators (grudgingly) accept the right of individual adults to transition

4. Commentators disproportionately “monster” trans individuals
 
5. Editors and commissioners can no longer use the "complexity" of transgender issues as a gatekeeping tactic

6. The refusal of trans language, culture and history is ideological

7. The focus on the cost of gender reassignment to the NHS is ideological

8. Commentators “monster” efforts of trans community to organise

9.The battleground has moved to the lives of children

10. Liberal/libertarian constructions of “freedom of speech” preserve this status quo

11. Going to the PCC is understood to be pointless

12. The structures of online journalism should be considered in any analysis

13. The "outrage fatigue" generated by this model is particularly dangerous

14. This situation is self-perpetuating

15. Compromise is neither desirable nor possible

An excellent article for the New Statesman by Juliet Jacques.  
Please click here to read her analysis and explanation of these points.


PS The above photo is the one used to illustrate the article in the NS, and captioned; 'April Ashley, who was "outed" by the Sunday People in 1961, poses with her MBE in December 2012.'