June 18, 201214 yr April Ashley receives MBE for services to transgender equality The first Briton to have a sex change operation has been awarded an MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours, for her services to transgender equality. The 77-year-old actress and campaigner was born a boy and underwent a sex change operation in Casablanca in 1960 at the age of 25 by Moroccan surgeon Doctor Burou, who had carried out eight previous sex change operations. April went on to become a successful model, including an assignment for Vogue, shot by David Bailey. But in 1961 a friend sold her story to the Sunday People, published under the headline “The Extraordinary Case Of Top Model April Ashley – ‘Her’ Secret Is Out.” April went on to campaign for the right to call herself a woman and was legally able to in 2004 with the introduction of the Gender Recognition Act. http://news.pinkpape...r-equality.aspx In an article in The Independent, her biographer Duncan Fallowell recalls, having met her when he was an undergraduate at Oxford in the 60's. "We gave a celebrated dinner for her in the Oscar Wilde Room at Magdalen College. The porters served the food and stood against the walls like footmen. The climax came when April leaped on to the mahogany dining table and performed a flamenco in and out of the candlesticks. Magdalen had never seen anything like this - Ever." http://www.independe...ed-7856581.html
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