Dr Stephen Whittle OBE
Founder and Vice-President of Press for Change
The December 2004 award of an OBE to Dr Stephen Whittle recognised his outstanding and long term contribution to the development of social and legal recognition for transsexual people over the course of more than 30 years. During that time Stephen had not only become recognised throughout the world as a leading academic legal expert in this field (one of the foremost authorities to whom lawyers turn for advice), but he had also helped to lead a revolution in the organisation and self-awareness of transsexual people throughout the world, inspiring others to come together to form an international community through lecturing, writing, media appearances and mentoring a new generation of campaigners.
Stephen Whittle is Reader in Law at Manchester Metropolitan University where, prior to his present role heading the graduate school, he taught for many years in the areas of Contemporary Social Law, Gender, Sexual Orientation and the Law, and Human Rights. He is a founder and vice-president of Press For Change (http://www.pfc.org.uk), which campaigns for respect and equality for all trans people. He is also co-ordinator of the UK’s support network for ‘female to male’ trans people (http://www.ftm.org.uk).
He transitioned from female to male himself in the mid-1970s, having come from a background of Women’s Liberation and Gay Liberation politics at that time, and he has very much retained his feminist and queer political views that were developed then.
A leading community organiser for almost 30 years
Stephen’s campaign CV can be traced back to 1973 when he joined the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (still attempting to identify as a Lesbian at that time). In 1974, he co-founded the Manchester Lesbian Collective – a radical group which was involved in setting up the first Manchester Women’s Refuge. He announced that he was a man shortly afterwards and, with the group’s support, contacted other trans people in and around Manchester. Along with others he started the very first support group in the UK for transsexuals and transvestites. The group was to be instrumental in the setting up of the Manchester Gay Switchboard.
In 1975 Stephen joined the Beaumont Society, as a trans man and became co-editor of the Beaumont News, a magazine for what was ostensibly a heterosexual male transvestite organisation at that time. In 1979 he was a founder member of the first UK self help group for transsexual people and has remained involved in all the self-help groups that have come into existence since then. In 1990 he founded the FTM Network, a self-help group for trans men which now has over 700 members in the UK, and members from another 20 countries.
The turning point in his career
The 1970’s and 80’s were a time of social and political oblivion for transsexual people in the UK, following the infamous divorce case of April Ashley and Arthur Corbett in 1969-70. During this period trans people had no employment protection and were always vulnerable to being sensationally “outed” in the press. The first attempt to reverse this position in the UK came in the 1980’s, when another contemporary, Mark Rees, took the very first case against the UK Government to the European Court of Human Rights. The case was lost in 1986 but the press analysis of the arguments and the dissenting views of several international judges convinced Stephen that the path to achieving any significant change in the position of trans people in the UK lay in learning to use the law as an instrument of social change.
Studying at first through a part time law degree, Stephen graduated in 1990 and then went on to achieve an M.A. (researching “Crime, Deviance and Social Policy”) through further part time study. In 1995 he earned a Ph.D. for his leading research on “The Law and Transsexuals” and became a full time lecturer in the School of Law at Manchester Metropolitan University.
A major contributor to the development of Human Rights law
Though Stephen became an academic relatively late in life he has taken the opportunity, over the last few years, to participate in developing wide ranging new theoretical, policy and legal approaches to the paradigms of gender, sex and sexuality. Though his work has primarily concentrated on the transgender and transsexual communities it has been wide ranging in its approach to the construction of legal discourses in areas such as employment law, family law, reproductive and children’s rights, European Law and the European courts, social activism and policy development.
Recognition of Stephen’s expertise has led to his invitation to provide documentary guidance, on behalf of ILGA Europe, to the European Council as to future amendments of the European Convention on Human Rights. He has also acted as an advisor to the ‘LGBT audit’ project of Northern Ireland’s Human Rights Commission (Advisory Board of the Human Rights and Equality Centre, University of Ulster, Human Rights Commission, Northern Ireland), and he has provided direct guidance to the NIHRC as to the inclusion of gender identity as a protected category within the proposed Bill of Rights.
Stephen’s work in this field was recognised recently by his legal peers when he received the 2002 Liberty / Justice Human Rights Award for his leading contribution to the advancement of trans people’s rights through the law.
Founding Press for Change
In 1992 Stephen co-founded the UK transsexual rights campaign organisation “Press for Change” and placed his imprint on the evolution of the group’s objectives and structure by creating an environment which actively encouraged otherwise timid people to contribute as much or as little as they felt able. Press for Change borrows many organisational concepts from Whittle’s feminist experience but, whilst the body is essentially non-hierarchic, seasoned and fresh campaigners indisputably
regard Stephen as the voice of experience and consensual leadership on legal questions.
Leading by Example — In the Media
Part of the reason for the high regard in which Stephen is held by transsexual people is his willingness to lead by example. Trans people have had good reason in the past to actively fear the media and the effects of public exposure. In spite of those dangers, however, Stephen has consistently put himself forward as a media figure and spokesman for the community for more than a decade. Significant recent examples include the charting of his phalloplasty surgery in the Channel Four documentary “Make me a Man”, full page articles in the Times Law and Higher Education Supplements, and appearances on news and current affairs programmes such as “Newsnight” in the immediate wake of the landmark ruling by the European Court of Human Rights in July 2002.
Other trans campaigners regularly contribute comment to news stories nowadays but Stephen’s contribution is in a completely different league, both in terms of the prominence given to his authority as a leadership figure, and the sheer number and consistency of his contributions over such a long period of time. Stephen is perceived to be the leading face of trans activism not only in the UK, but elsewhere too. In addition Stephen regularly contributes as a consultant to the making of many
other television and radio programmes. In the last six years alone hehas contributed to around 30 programmes, including six on BBC television, ten on BBC network radio and the majority of the remainder for Channel Four independents.
Leading by Example — In Print
It is in print that Stephen has made some of his most lasting contributions, as a leading academic presenting 37 international conference papers in the field of gender theory, through chapters in nine edited books, via Amicii Briefs to the courts in eight international human rights cases, and through author/editorship of a further nine books, all of which contribute to a widening study and understanding of transgender lives. His recently published textbook, “Respect and Equality — Transsexual and Transgender Rights” (Cavendish: 2002) is the first authoritative summary of the collective experience of pursuing transgender rights cases through the world’s courts.
Through his writing and example on international conference platforms Stephen has inspired countless other trans writers and speakers to develop their talents and contribute to what is now a large and diverse body of thought.
Leading by Example — In the Courts
In addition to his media appearances and writing Stephen has been a high profile litigant himself, breaking new ground first by establishing the right to artificial insemination treatment to enable his partner to become pregnant in the early 90’s and subsequently taking the case of his family to the European Court of Human Rights in 1996 (in the pursuit of the children’s right to have him recognised as their legal father).
Although involving one’s children and family in litigation and consequent publicity is a difficult road, wide open to criticism, the most compelling “proof” that Stephen’s family life is happy and normal is to show people, and the strength and support of the family which he and his partner have built speaks for itself. In turn, through this,
Stephen and Sarah have inspired countless other trans people to seek their right to have families of their own too.
It is perhaps significant in itself that Stephen’s immense contributions to the trans community have been achieved whilst being at the same time a very active and loving parent to four children aged between five and twelve, and partner to Sarah for over twenty-five years.
On June 18th 2005 Stephen, his partner Sarah and their four children became the first trans family in the United Kingdom to benefit from the new rights created by The Gender Recognition Act, following Stephen’s legal recognition as a man. After waiting 26 years for the opportunity to do so, Stephen and Sarah married in a private and very moving service before family, colleagues and friends, in a small Methodist Church a few yards from their home near Stockport, Cheshire.
Individual Support
Although Stephen’s contributions as a high profile campaigner and legal consultant are well known, his less glamorous work behind the scenes is just as a significant.
The reputation and profile of Press for Change ensure a very large postbag, much of it comprising pleas for help from people suffering discrimination or harassment at work, or where they live. Problems such as this often require complex legal answers to convey to solicitors and writing individual replies of this kind takes a significant amount of time. The importance of Stephen’s contribution in this area is underlined by the fact that there is seldom anyone else who can give the complete answer on his behalf. In addition to everything else, therefore, Stephen works many unrecognised hours simply replying to people in person and supporting them. Again this is on top of his own family commitments.
Recent Campaign Activity
Stephen’s contribution and place as a leader in this field of social activism is so great that it is hard to list all of his contributions, especially over the last few years. As the pace of advancement for transsexual people in the UK has accelerated, however, it is relevant to focus particular attention upon his involvement in the change process:
In 1999 Stephen co-authored the trans community’s submission to the Interdepartmental Working Group, “Recognising the Identity and Rights of Transsexual and Transgender People in the United Kingdom”
In 2000 he led the trans community’s presentation to the Interdepartmental Working Group. Since then he has contributed extensively to further research by the Lord Chancellor’s Department and the Interdepartmental Working Group. Stephen is one of the four leading activists who liased extensively on matters leading to the successful passage of the Gender Recognition Act in 2004.