One of the great things about doing LGBT History Month is that you get to meet other people with the same research interests. After my talk about the pioneering trans man, Michael Dillon, I was approached by a trans man called Simon Croft. Simon is an artist. He had been in touch with Dillon’s literary agents and had obtained permission to use photographs of pages from Dillon’s unpublished memoirs as part of an art installation.
Tapping into this year’s theme of Religion, Belief and Philosophy, Simon’s work is called “Temple”. He has used an idealised image of a house as a metaphor for the idealised bodies that trans people are expected to aspire to. The house is covered with pages from Dillon’s memoirs. If you look closely at the photo you can see Dillon’s hand-written annotations.
Meanwhile the trans musician, CN Lester, is researching a book about trans history. CN has been in touch with some medical history that they’ve uncovered. Dillon’s surgery is still groundbreaking because it relied on techniques that were not perfected until after WWI, but CN has found evidence of trans men in Germany having surgery of sorts in 1912, and in 1882.
Oh, and Simon tells me that, according to Dillon’s agents, an American university has bought the rights to publish the memoirs. I for one can’t wait to read them.
Cheryl Morgan
Bristol Hub Coordinator
To learn more about Dr. Michael Dillon and his pioneering ideas about medical treatment for trans people, come to my talk at the Bristol (Feb 21st) or Manchester (Feb 27th) hubs.
And to see Simon’s amazing artwork, check out this exhibition.
