PFC campaigners from bygone years

People ask whether I wish I hadn’t been trans.  My answer is ’No’ - I have been able to be at the forefront of a new political movement that is really challenging the issues of body fascism.  If we can win the one about trans bodies, then we can win in all the other battle grounds surrounding the body whether to do with people being fat or thin, abled or disabled, black or brown, male or female.  Mostly though, being trans has been a privilege because I have met wonderful people, done wonderful things, been to wonderful places - all in all had a wonderful life!
Stephen Whittle, PFC co-founder

HISTORICALLY, trans people been have encouraged to be covert persons … advice that hardly needed repeating or explaining for any trans person who grew up through the worst of the era of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s.  In those days, to be discovered as trans meant only one form of social reception.

One of the daunting objectives faced by the founders of Press for Change in 1992 was to overturn and reverse that most fundamental of repressive forces … to make it possible for trans voices to begin to be heard in Britain.

Press for Change campaigns for the right of trans people to be private, when they wish, but also for the option to be able to choose when not to be … to offer the option of taking a personal pride in all the achievements of their lives … but to be able to own their pasts as much as claiming their futures.

To achieve that goal … and at the end of 1998 there’s no denying that we have now achieved it … required a preparedness to challenge the oppression at its’ root.  The founders of Press for Change ended the tyranny of “fear of exposure” by showing it for what it was — a paper tiger.  Many of these pioneering campaigners took personal decisions to be “out” when to do so was considered not just brave, but potentially foolhardy.  But in showing that it could be done, they created a virtuous circle for others to join … so that nowadays there is really nothing exceptional about being widely known as a campaigning trans person.  Indeed it attracts admiration and a burgeoning attention to what we have to say.

Here, then are some of those who created that social revolution and worked to enable others to pick up the torch and carry it the next mile … to true liberation.

Anna Boyer | Christine Burns | Tracy Dean | Sharon Haworth | Claire McNab | P | Mark Rees | Myka Scott

Former PFC vice-president Mark Rees is one of the original founders of Press for Change and is famous as the first trans person to have taken the British government to the European Court of Human Rights in 1986. He was a Liberal Democrat councillor in Tonbridge Wells, until defeated in the May 1998 elections. Mark continues to campaign actively, appearing on many TV and Radio programmes and promoting his autobiography, “Dear Sir or Madam”.	Former PFC vice president Myka Scott was one of PFC’s longest-standing activists and one of a very small number of trans performers in Britain. As a media expert, she has achieved countless unsung PR coups for the campaign over the years and is currently very active within the LGBT section of the acting union, Equity
Former PFC vice-president Christine Burns used her media skills to act as one of our our main contacts for journalists. In between wielding her mobile phone to great effect and working with the Parliamentary forum, Christine is a prolific writer and analyst of trans issues.	The plaintiff in the landmark case of P-vs-S and Cornwall County Council prefers to remain anonoymous. But having won the crucial judgement in the European Court of Justice which secured protection against discrimination for trans people across the whole of the European Union, P doesn’t rest on her laurels: she continues to be an active campaigner, whilst protecting her identity from the public.
As PFC’s represtative on the Equality Alliance (an umbrella grouping of GLBT rights campaigns), Romana Mewett does much of the hard work of ensuring that other discriminated groups are aware of our issues, and not led astray by the myths … as well as ensuring that PFC activists know what’s happening elsewhere!	As secretary of the Nottingham Transgender Network, Sharon Haworth is one of an increasing number of campaigners who have shown what patience and persistence can achieve at local level. Access to women-only space, medical provision for trans people … in these and other areas, NTN has shown once again that dialogue works!
Plenty of PFC campaigners are active within the political parties, but Anna Boyer has gone a step further in persuading the Liberal Democrats to formally adopt a policy of supporting the rights of trans people, and is working within the party to build on that support.	Former PFC vice-president Claire McNab did all the day-to-day hard work for ’PFC Online’ and applied her practical experience as a Westminster lobbyist to our behind-the-scenes political negotiations
PFC vice-president Tracy Dean is a software engineer and takes overall editorial responsibility for this website. She is the resident expert on the civil registration system.

Members

• Members: pen profiles of some PFC members