Dr Stephen Whittle OBE and Christine Burns MBE
There is no written account of the day that Stephen Whittle and I took our families to Buckingham palace to receive our respective OBE and MBE from Prince Charles. (The Queen was touring in Canada). Nevertheless it was, as you may imagine, a very special day.
Prince Charles did remark to me that he thought he had already met one of my associates that day, as he pinned on the little medal. My sense of good protocol stopped me at the time from saying the first thought that popped into my head, “Well, Sir, you see these things are like buses – you wait 35 years and then two come along at once”.
Although it is nice to be honoured in that way, of course .. and it was the best present we could ever give our families .. the thing that made it especially important in our eyes was what those honours said now about the value placed on trans people’s lives, welfare and rights. In honouring us, society was being given a serious message. It said that those people’s rights and welfare are important in themselves.
This message was echoed in a short article which I wrote for gay.com at the time the awards were announced and the Gender Recognition Process rumbled into action
See http://uk.gay.com/article/3285
Christine Burns MBE