Interview with Catherine Burton

 

Catherine “Cat” Burton has spent most of her life navigating worlds in which she was never expected to belong. Born into an aviation family, she began flying professionally in 1972, at a time when there were no female professional pilots in the United Kingdom. What followed was an extraordinary career spanning some 45 years, during which she flew everything from Vickers Viscounts to Boeing 747s and eventually became a long-haul captain with British Airways. Yet while aviation gave Cat a life she loved, it also provided a remarkably effective place to hide a part of herself that she had not yet fully understood.

 

Cat eventually came out as transgender in her late fifties and returned to the flight deck as herself, supported by British Airways and, as she discovered, by many of the colleagues she had feared might reject her. Her story is not simply about transition or aviation. It is about identity, courage, humour and the extraordinary freedom that comes from finally stopping the exhausting work of pretending to be someone else. It is also a story about what happens when a workplace chooses not merely to tolerate difference, but to recognise the value of the person standing in front of them. Cat went on to become a diversity champion, an advocate for women and minorities in aviation and, after retiring from British Airways, a flying instructor who clearly has no intention whatsoever of slowing down. As she puts it rather succinctly, there will be “plenty of time for that when I’m dead.”

Interview with Ellie

Monika: Today I have the pleasure and honor of interviewing Ellie, an American helicopter pilot, veteran, and transgender woman that shares her transition story on social media. Hello Ellie!

Ellie: Hey, it’s great to be able to share my story with everyone.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Ellie: I was raised up in the country, riding horses, helping out at my grandpa's ranch. I was always interested in the acceptable boy things like guns and sports. After high school, I joined the military and used my benefits once I got out to learn how to fly. I was a very successful helicopter pilot for three years until one day my fiancée was watching a video from one of the transgender YouTubers she watches and it planted a seed in my mind. So I looked into other transgender people's experiences and it became instantly clear that I have been ignoring all the signs from my past that I have always been transgender. I came out to my fiancée that day and everyone else within the week.

Interview with Kirsty Jayne Crow

When we think of lives that read like a novel, few could rival the extraordinary story of Kirsty Jayne Crow. Born on the beautiful island of Jersey, Kirsty grew up surrounded by family love and the kind of picturesque childhood that might have promised a straightforward path ahead. Yet, from the age of eight, she was already grappling with a deep sense of gender incongruence, quietly envying her sisters’ silky hair and elegant clothes. Alongside this internal struggle, she discovered another passion, aviation, which would chart the early course of her professional life. By her teens, she was already flying, preparing for what seemed like a glittering future in the skies. But life, with its unexpected twists, intervened: a diagnosis of insulin-dependent diabetes at twenty-two brought an abrupt end to her dream of becoming a pilot. Resilient and determined, Kirsty built a successful career in airline operations, working for major carriers across the globe. Yet, behind the professionalism and discipline required in aviation, gender dysphoria remained an unrelenting shadow, shaping her personal relationships and, eventually, her destiny. Like many trans women of her generation, she clung to the belief that love alone could "cure" her. That hope carried her through two difficult marriages before she met Julia, the woman who would become not only her partner but also her rock throughout her transition.