Mixed Messages

In 1971, when I went to the University of Lancaster, it was a hotbed of progressiveness. Many of the students were so-called "mature" students (this referred to their age, not their mental development, as my ex-husband showed), the proportion of working class students was quite high, and they even accepted the folk singer Cyril Tawney to study English on the basis of his 7 albums.

Gay Lib was very high profile, and was embraced by students gay and straight. Some people were confused that my husband and I both wore Gay Liberation Front badges, but nobody really cared. The only person who took advantage was a male student who thought he'd get really lucky if he pretended to be gay, since lots of female students would try to convert him. This cynical attitude won him the ugliest girlfriend on campus.

While doing some research for a Sociology paper, I came across a young man who was about to embark on a sex-change regime. He told me that he had always felt that he was in the wrong body. He wasn't interested in homosexual relationships with men, he wanted to take a woman's role in a heterosexual partnership. He even asked my advice about what size boobs he should aim for.

When Lou was doing her year of living as a woman, she looked so good that some of the male students (my husband included) had to remind themselves that she was not yet in the physical condition to join with them as she and they might wish.

At this time, I noticed that one of my male Sociology lecturers was wearing high-heeled boots identical to mine. Before my time at Uni was up, he was a she, having gone for the accelerated programme available in Casablanca. Thus the book I had bought by Margaret Coulson and David Riddell was in later editions attributed to Ms Coulson and Carol Riddell.

The thing about David/Carol was that both he and she had a tendency to throw themselves into causes. David had been a devout catholic, but when his wife came out as gay, he foreswore that for the International Marxist Group. He had a liaison with his co-author, and during that relationship she came out as gay. Then a girlfriend, Nina, did the same. David apparently felt that "If you can't beat them, join them" was the appropriate response and went for the operation. Once David had become Carol she fanatically embraced lesbianism and feminism (to the extent of being arrested for assaulting a policeman in a women's rights demonstration). Yes, HE became a SHE only because of loving women. I found this rather drastic.

She seems to have a new cause now which appears to have taken her back along the spiritual path. You can find it at http://www.carolriddell.co.uk/index.html

Fast forward a decade or so, and my interest in opera had blossomed. I came across a middle-aged woman called Hazel Vivienne who was one of the few female opera conductors in the world. She lived with her long-time lesbian lover.

Then Hazel was no more. She had been transformed into Victor Morris. Male opera conductors are two-a-penny, so Hazel's claim to fame was lost. Victor continued to live with Hazel's girlfriend. I often wondered if she enjoyed having a male partner when she was obviously in love with and attracted to a woman.

I wish I knew what really drove David and Hazel to make these huge changes in their lives and their bodies. Of the three transsexuals I have known, I can only understand Lou's motives. Can anyone else offer an explanation or an hypothesis of what might have made two people change sex in order to retain their sexual preferences?

I did try to find pictures online of Hazel/Victor and David/Carol, but they do not appear to exist. Cyril, though he has since died, had pictures aplenty.