Interview with Treva Angelina Askey

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Treva Angelina Askey, a British army veteran who completed tours in Kenya and the Falklands Islands and operational tours of Bosnia; her story was featured in the book titled “Too Deep: My journey as my husband becomes my beautiful wife” (2013), written by her wife Victoria Askey. Hello Treva!

Treva: Hello Monika, a pleasure and a privilege to complete this interview for you.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?
Treva: I am a retired British Army veteran going through the transition. I am very shy and quiet; I also keep myself to myself outside of the family home. I have taken on the role of housewife since marrying my wife Victoria in September 2011 allowing her to achieve her goal of becoming an author.
I enjoy experimenting in the kitchen trying out new foods for the family to enjoy or hate depending on how many chilies I use lol. I am also trying to become a gardener so I can grow my own vegetables but I am failing at that one lol. I have a couple of old Lambretta scooters that I enjoy fixing and riding as my hobby.
Monika: What inspired your wife to write a book about your transition?
Treva: I will let my wife answer this one.
Victoria: After researching about the transition road I found it was all negative, I wanted to show people that it’s not all bad, that love can overcome any obstacle that’s put in your way. I was also amazed at the number of partners that run when they are told that their other half is transgender and it doesn’t have to be like that. I was also inspired by Treva’s courage and how she could have lived her life not telling anyone until she told me.

Interview with Fay Presto

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Fay Presto, aka Letitia Winter, a British premier close-up magician, voted The Magic Circle Close-up Magician of the Year 2012, former Tatler 'Party Entertainer of the Year, Gold Star Member of The Inner Magic Circle.

Her first job was as a lab assistant at an atomic energy research company. She had to leave The Magic Circle when she began her transition, regaining the membership in 1991 when The Magic Circle voted to allow women members. Her main interest is close-up magic; she is known for her "bottle through the table" trick, which was ranked as one of the greatest magic tricks of all time by Channel 4's 50 Greatest Magic Tricks. Hello Fay!

Fay: Hello Monika!

Monika: According to Wikipedia, magic is a performing art that entertains audiences by staging tricks or creating illusions of seemingly impossible or supernatural feats using natural means. Why do people need magic?

Fay: Magic, my kind of magic, is part of the entertainment industry. People have a fundamental need to be entertained, after air, water, food, and shelter, comes entertainment; be it folk tales, shamanic dancing, or cave paintings that flicker in the firelight.

We go out, kill the mammoth, bring it home, skin it and cook it and then gather in the cave behind the fire and tell tales to help us forget the sabre-toothed tiger on the other side of the flames.

Interview with Andie Davidson

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Andie Davidson, a publisher, writer, blogger, musician, and author of "Realisations" (2012). Hello Honey!

Andie: Hi Monika, it’s great to join you here, and in such a company.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Andie: No! I talk far too much! But I can try. I live on the south coast of the UK and work as a technical writer in an engineering company. I was married for over 30 years and have two grown-up children. I’m recently divorced, but happy to have found my true self after 55 years of ignorance and another couple of years sorting it out.

Interview with Miss saHHara

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honour to interview Miss saHHara, a British Nigerian model, singer, beauty queen and LGBT activist, known for representing Nigeria in international beauty pageants to draw attention to the plights of LGBTQI+ people in Africa. In 2011, she was the first Nigerian trans woman to participate in the Miss International Queen beauty pageant in Pattaya, Thailand. Hello Miss saHHara!

Miss saHHara: Hi Monika!

Monika: Some critics compare your voice to that of Nina Simone. Do you have any singers that you admire and draw inspirations from?

Miss saHHara: Yes, I have been told I sound like Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald and Heather Small from M-People. I find it humbling because they are the greats! I am influenced by the looks, glamour and stage presence of Shirley Bassey.

Monika: Could you say a few words about your singing career?

Miss saHHara: I began singing and writing songs at the age of twelve in Nigeria. I found solace in music through the church due to a rather troubled/confused childhood because of the identity I was assigned at birth. So, when I moved to the United Kingdom to live my life openly, I decided to pursue my music career a bit farther.

I have a singing residency in a lovely venue in London for the past 10 years. Music is my life, being creative in writing and producing gives me joy and satisfaction. I have written and produced over fifty songs, I am planning to release an album in the future.

Interview with Merryn Witherspoon

Monika: Today’s interview will be with Merryn Witherspoon, a video blogger that documents her transition on YouTube. Hello Merryn!

Merryn: Hello Monika!

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Merryn: I’m not best known for only saying a few words Monika but I’ll try! I’m a middle-aged digital creative living in the lovely Cotswolds in South Gloucestershire, west England. Essentially I’ve been ‘T’ since I was three years of age but for a variety of personal reasons have tried to conform to society’s male expectations until very recently.

I’m now single again after losing my late partner eighteen months ago but have some wonderful family members in the UK and South Africa. My main non-work time is largely devoted to songwriting and live music and quite intensive cardio fitness sessions at my local gym.

Monika: Why did you decide to share your transition details on YouTube?

Merryn: Partly as a ‘walking talking’ resource for my friends and family rather than the static photos I tend to circulate with every ‘coming out ‘ email! – and partly for my own cathartic and vanity reasons I guess I wanted to try and explain thing in a more conversational, human way than merely words on paper.

Interview with Robyn-Jane

Monika: Today’s interview will be with Robyn-Jane, inspirational woman, blogger, transgender artist, and leader of the band "Robyn-Jane". Hello Robyn!

Robyn: Hi Monika, it's so great to have the chance to talk to you.

Monika: What are you doing these days?

Robyn: Having undergone my gender reassignment surgery last year on April 10, I am finally getting the chance to be the woman I was always meant to be. It has meant that work on our new album 'Bitter Honey' has been somewhat delayed but it has been a beautiful and life-changing experience.

Monika: You are a member of the band named "Robyn-Jane". How did you start playing together?

Robyn: We started playing together some years ago to back another artist who has since become part of our lineup. Our sound evolved from playing straight Blues and Country into the more sassy cabaret blues style we have today.

Interview with Christine Burns MBE

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Christine Burns MBE, a British equalities specialist; former vice president of Press for Change; ranked 35th (2011) and 42nd (2012) on the Independent on Sunday's annual Pink List of influential LGBT people in the United Kingdom (a judge in 2013), and author of many books, including the highly acclaimed textbook “Making Equality Work” and her recent memoir titled Pressing Matters (Vol 1). Hello Christine!

Christine: Well thank you for including me in your amazing collection of interviews Monika - I’m most flattered!

Monika: We are having this interview when you have just published the first volume of your memoirs titled Pressing Matters. It touches upon your biography but it focuses primarily on the Gender Recognition Bill. How important was that Bill for the transgender community in the UK?

Christine: “Pressing Matters” is a history of trans activism in the United Kingdom. It is a history which I was initially reluctant to write, as I wasn’t sure whether I was the right person to write such a thing. I was very close to the action during a phenomenal period of advancement in trans rights around the world. As such, I thought I might have been too close to tell such an important story.
My ideal scenario is that such a history ought to be written by others - with the perspective that comes from both physical distance and the passage of time. However, in spite of efforts to encourage that over the last few years I could see that such a history wasn’t going to get written unless someone took the first step.
At the same time, I think such a history is absolutely crucial - especially as a majority of those leading on trans activism in the UK now are quite young and would not otherwise understand how the circumstances they find themselves in came about.

Interview with Juliet Jacques

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Juliet Jacques, an inspirational British journalist, critic, writer, and columnist for The Guardian and The New Statesman. She is the founder and presenter of Resonance FM art discussion show Suite (212). Juliet was born in Redhill, Surrey, and grew up in Horley. She graduated from the College of Richard Collyer in Horsham, West Sussex, studying History at the University of Manchester and then Literature and Film at the University of Sussex. In addition, she completed a Ph.D. in Creative and Critical Writing at the University of Sussex. In 2011, she was longlisted for The Orwell Prize for 'A Transgender Journey'. In 2012 and 2013, she was selected as one of The Independent on Sunday Pink List's most influential journalists. Hello Juliet!

Juliet: Hi Monika!

Monika: Your acclaimed account of gender transition in the Guardian titled “My Transgender Journey” won much praise and recognition and allowed you to have your blog longlisted for the 2011 Orwell Prize. This success made you one of the transgender role models in the UK. How are you coping with the burden?

Juliet: It’s been strange. I had a socio-political purpose with the Transgender Journey series, but my background was as a literature and film critic, and my inspirations were post-war authors who wrote first-person novels that focused on the interior life of their protagonists – people like Nathalie Sarraute, Ann Quin, Rayner Heppenstall and Jean-Philippe Toussaint. I hadn’t expected people to call me “an activist” or “a role model”, terms which carry very different expectations and responsibilities to “writer”, which was how I saw myself.

Interview with Roz Kaveney

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Roz Kaveney, a prolific British novelist, poet, critic, transgender activist, editor of Reading the Vampire Slayer, member of the Midnight Rose collective, and author of Rhapsody of Blood: vol. 1: Rituals and vol. 2: Reflections, and the poetry collection Dialectic of the Flesh. She is a Londoner, sentimentalist, radical, “somewhat disliked by various silly people”. Hello Roz!

Roz: Hello Monika!

Monika: While preparing for the interview with you, I was amazed by the number of initiatives and projects you took part in: a founding member of Feminists Against Censorship (FAC), a former deputy chair of Liberty, deputy editor of the transgender-related magazine META, a core member of the Midnight Rose collective. How do you find energy and time to cover so many activities?

Roz: Well, I didn’t do all of those things at the same time. I learned when I was quite young that I have limited energy and it’s all been a matter of prioritizing and forgiving myself when I need to walk away from something. For example, when I was elected to the Executive Committee of Liberty, I stepped down as Secretary of FAC, because there were plenty of other people capable of doing the work I had been doing.

When my health declined – I had some bad times with gall-bladder surgery – I resigned from Liberty to concentrate on my writing again which is why there is considerable hiatus between the Midnight Rose period of my work and the work I’ve done over the last decade.

Interview with Adèle Anderson

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Adèle Anderson, an inspirational British songwriter, actress, and member of the acclaimed British cabaret group Fascinating Aïda. She is a patron and humanist celebrant of Humanists UK (formerly known as the British Humanist Association), specializing in non-religious weddings. Hello Adèle!

Adèle: Hello, Monika. What would you like to know?

Monika: Last year Fascinating Aïda could boast the 30th anniversary of its creation. You joined the group, a year later, in 1984. So you have been singing with Dillie Keane for almost 30 years. (Liza Pulman joined the group in 2004.) How have you managed to stay together for so many years?

Adèle: First of all, I hugely admire Dillie and her extraordinary talent. We discovered that we just “clicked” as a writing partnership. She has made me a much better songwriter than I would ever have been on my own.

Secondly, it is extremely satisfying to perform a show that one has written and to enjoy the reactions of the various audiences up and down the country and, sometimes, abroad. Dillie and I have learned to be upfront about any disagreements and not to be offended if one of us doesn’t like a lyric that the other one has written, or thinks it isn’t good enough.

Interview with Drew-Ashlyn Cunningham

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Drew-Ashlyn Cunningham, a talented woman, British celebrity and model, make-up artist, and participant of Channel 4’s reality documentary "My Transsexual Summer". Hello Drew-Ashlyn!

Drew-Ashlyn: Thank you so much for doing this interview. I'm excited to see what kind of questions you thought up for me!

Monika: It has been 2 years since you appeared on "My Transsexual Summer". Did the documentary change your life?

Drew-Ashlyn: Haha, definitely I think it's fair to say my life is completely different now and for the better. I moved on from the coffee shop I was working in while the show was being wrapped up and started working for Illamasqua in their stand-alone store in Leeds as a make-up artist. I moved on from an abusive relationship and met a lovely guy in my hometown. I no longer have people shouting nasty things at me down the street.

Interview with Samantha Valentine

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Samantha Valentine, a British transgender activist, model, actress, and member of TEAM TG. Hello Samantha! 

Samantha: Hi Monika, It's a pleasure and an honor to do this interview. Thank you for asking me to do this.

Monika: Together with Lisa Heart, you are involved in the TEAM TG project. Could you say a few words about it?

Samantha: Well, I heard about Team TG on the Sparkle 2013 website where they were looking for volunteers to help handing out leaflets and modeling with KITT. The website itself helps anyone who is trans to find the right website for them relating to trans issues. I think this is important, especially, in the early days of transitioning. It can be a jungle and you can get lost quite easily. So something like this is a great idea.

Team TG goes to transgender events to promote itself. Having KITT certainly helps to bring attention to us and then people ask about team TG, it's all good.

Interview with Jenna Arriving1

Monika: Today’s interview will be with Jenna Arriving1, a video blogger that documents her transition on YouTube. Hello Jenna!

Jenna: Hello Monika. Just to say that Jenna is an alias I use online and it’s not my real name.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Jenna: Well, I am 38, single, and now living in London UK. I live full-time as a woman and started a medical transition in Oct 2011. I have been living full-time as a woman for one year. I initially transitioned as a teenager at age 16 and continued for 2 years until after my 18th birthday. Sadly I detransitioned due to ill health and other pressures. I restarted my transition at age 36.

Interview with Aeris Houlihan

Monika: Today I have invited Aeris Houlihan, a British football player and transgender video blogger that documents her transition on YouTube. Hello Aeris!

Aeris: Hi Monika.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Aeris: I was born in Dublin and moved over to England when I was around 3. I have lived in England ever since. I’m an outgoing individual who loves to keep fit and take care of her appearance. I love clothes shopping and trying new makeup techniques. I’m a musician, music producer and love to work on video special effects.

Interview with Carol Mapley

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Carol Mapley, a Scottish nationalist, LGBT activist, and a former policewoman. She served in the RAF’s Observer Corps for 18 years. Her police career started in 1977 when she joined Grampian Police. She is Scottish Labour’s first transgender election candidate for the Castle Douglas and Glenken council seat. Hello Carol!

Carol: Hi Monika! It's lovely to speak to you.

Monika: Could you say a few words about your career so far?

Carol: I’ve had two distinct career strands to date – the police and mental health. I work within the Police Service of Scotland where I help formulate national policy and service delivery in relation to transgendered officers and staff as well as the transgendered people that we the police come into contact with every day in Scotland.

I play an active role in delivering mental health, and trans awareness training at our national police college in Fife. I also serve as a director of a major Scottish mental health charity – Vox Scotland. Vox is a charity that represents the views of mental health service users in the planning and provision of mental health services within Scotland.

Interview with Jenny-Anne Bishop

Monika: Today I have invited Jenny-Anne Bishop, a British transgender activist and former sales and marketing manager in scientific instruments. She is a graduate in industrial chemistry and a staunch advocate of the Transgender and LGBT communities. Jenny-Anne is a lay pastoral leader and Board of Directors member of the Manchester Metropolitan Community Church, a member of the Westminster Parliamentary Forum on Gender Identity, and a trustee for several LGBT organizations. Sie is also a member of many organizations and steering groups on reporting and reducing hate crime and on equality and diversity standards. She is living with her partner Elen in Rhyl, North Wales. Hello Jenny-Anne!

Jenny-Anne: Hello Monika, Thank you so much for asking me to do this interview, I feel quite humbled to be included in your series of outstanding Trans People.

Monika: What are you doing for a living these days?

Jenny-Anne: Well I've been retired for over 5 years now, so I am able to devote my time to trying to help and improve life for all our Trans* community.

I'm also an active member of the LGBT Church I attend in Manchester and lobby for LGBT Christian rights and acceptance. I guess it's about making every aspect of life Trans friendly because being trains is pervasive, it affects every aspect and corner of your life.

Interview with Frances McKevitt

Monika: Today I would like to present to you Frances McKevitt, an inspirational British woman, transgender artist, and leader of the band "The Frantastics". Frances was born in Liverpool, which probably explains her love for music. She is also a gardener, providing gardening services around London. Hello Frances!

Frances: Hello Monika!

Monika: What are you doing these days?

Frances: Very much what I have always been doing, traveling and performing in London and around the country, perfuming both solo and with the band. I’m also doing a lot of gardening, not very rock ‘n’ roll I know, but I seem to have caught the gardening bug real bad. I have a beautiful summerhouse at the end of my garden, where I like to spend time reading and writing new songs.

Interview with Kirsty Scarlet Cass

Monika: Today I would like you to meet Kirsty Scarlet Cass, a lovely lady from West Sussex in England. Her gender dysphoria was covered by the British media in 2010, following her suicide attempt. Hello Kirsty! It is my sheer pleasure to welcome you to “The Heroines of My Life”!

Kirsty: Thank you It is a pleasure to be interviewed by you.

Monika: How are you doing these days?

Kirsty: I have never felt better, thank you. Now I’m living my life how it should be.

Monika: Where did you grow up?

Kirsty: I was born in Crawley, West Sussex in England, and I have been here ever since.

Monika: Could you describe your childhood? When did you feel for the first time that you should not be a boy or man?

Kirsty: I had a happy childhood but from a very early age I preferred the company of females rather than boys, and as I got older I knew that I was different but did not know why.