The Beaumont Society is a human rights organisation based in the United Kingdom, which is run by transgender people for to support their community.
Founded in 1966 as the UK wing of the American organisation 'Full Personality Expression' (FPE), it evolved into the Beaumont Society, naming itself after Chevalier d’Eon de Beaumont. [1] One of the co-founders was Alice Purnell. [1] [2] It was founded with two aims in mind. [3] The first to provide information for legal and medical practitioners, as well as the general public, on trans issues. [3] The second to provide a social network for tranvestite, and later transgender, people. [3]
The first official meeting of the society was held in Southampton in 1966 (although there had been an initial one the year before). [3] The first official meeting had twelve attendees, two of whom were wives of members. [3] In 1969 Virginia Prince, the American founder of FPE, visited Britain, generating publicity for the Beaumont Society. [4]
By 1973 the society had 233 members. [3] Later in the 1970s it had 700 members. [5] By the late 1970s over 2000 people had passed through its membership. [6] During this time Stephen Whittle joined the society. [5] In its early years the society was explicit that it was for 'heterosexual transvestites' and that 'overt gayness' was not included. [3] [7] Campaigning to alter this started in the 1980s, [7] By the 1990s transgender people, across a range of sexualities, were explicitly included. [5]
It is the longest running support group for trans people in the UK. [8] It also provides counselling. [9] The society has branches across Britain, such as in Kent, [10] Leeds, [11] as well as other locations. The society's annual dinner was held at Broadcasting House in the 1970s and 1980s, subsequently moving to New Kensington Town Hall. [12]
Members of the Beaumont Society in Leeds, including June Willmott [13] , organised the 1974 conference Transvestism and Transsexuality in Modern Society [12] , the first UK national Trans conference held at the University of Leeds. In 1975 they organised a subsequent conference in Leicester, entitled Transvestism and Allied States in Family and Society. [14] The same year it also established the first charitable trust in the UK for trans people, [15] as well as a helpline. [5]
In 1986, the society supported the establishment of a transgender archive at the University of Ulster, an advertised it to its members. [16]
The society began to distribute the Beaumont Bulletin from January 1968. Published every two months, it started at eight pages long, but by 1970 it was regularly 24 pages long. The May 1970 issue was the first to include content written by wives of members. [3] The publication referred to its readers as 'girls', [5] and included tips on make-up application and buying clothes, especially those in larger sizes. [17] In 1977, a new publication, Beaumag, was issued which included fiction and comic writing. [3] As of 2024, the society still created a publication for its members, now entitled Beaumont Magazine. [5]
Transvestism is the practice of dressing in a manner traditionally or stereotypically associated with a different gender. In some cultures, transvestism is practiced for religious, traditional, or ceremonial reasons. The term is considered outdated in Western cultures, especially when used to describe a transgender or gender-fluid person.
Stephen Thomas Whittle, is a British legal scholar and activist with the transgender activist group Press for Change. Since 2007, he has been Professor of Equalities Law in the School of Law at Manchester Metropolitan University. Between 2007 and 2009, he was president of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). Having been assigned female at birth, he is described as "a radical lesbian before his sex change and now a leading commentator on gender issues", who after the Gender Recognition Act 2004 came into force in April 2005, achieved legal recognition as a man and so was able to marry his female partner.
Tri-Ess is an international educational, social, and support group for heterosexual cross-dressers, their partners, and their families.
Sexuality in transgender individuals encompasses all the issues of sexuality of other groups, including establishing a sexual identity, learning to deal with one's sexual needs, and finding a partner, but may be complicated by issues of gender dysphoria, side effects of surgery, physiological and emotional effects of hormone replacement therapy, psychological aspects of expressing sexuality after medical transition, or social aspects of expressing their gender.
The Sex Orientation Scale (SOS) was Harry Benjamin's attempt to classify and understand various forms and subtypes of transvestism and transsexualism in biological males, published in 1966. It was a seven-point scale ; it was analogous to the Kinsey Scale as it relates to sexual orientation, which also had seven categories.
Fantasia Fair is a week-long conference for cross-dressers, transgender and gender questioning people held every October in Provincetown, Massachusetts, a small Portuguese fishing village and largely gay and lesbian tourist village on the very tip of Cape Cod. This annual event is the longest-running transgender conference in the United States and it provides a week for attendees to experiment with gender-role identities and presentations in a safe and affirming community. The goal of the conference is to create a safe space in which crossdressers, transgender and transsexual people, and nonbinary-gendered people are accepted without judgement, can interact with their peers, and can advocate for their rights. In November, 1980 the event was featured in an article by D. Keith Mano in Playboy magazine and has in ensuing years has continued to generate publicity.
Christine Burns is a British political activist best known for her work with Press for Change and, more recently, as an internationally recognised health adviser. Burns was awarded an MBE in 2005 in recognition of her work representing transgender people. In 2011, she ranked 35th on the Independent on Sunday's annual Pink List of influential lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in the United Kingdom.
A transgender person is someone whose gender identity differs from that typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth. Some transgender people who desire medical assistance to transition from one sex to another identify as transsexual. Transgender is also an umbrella term; in addition to including people whose gender identity is the opposite of their assigned sex, it may also include people who are non-binary or genderqueer. Other definitions of transgender also include people who belong to a third gender, or else conceptualize transgender people as a third gender. The term may also include cross-dressers or drag kings and drag queens in some contexts. The term transgender does not have a universally accepted definition, including among researchers.
Louis Graydon Sullivan was an American author and activist known for his work on behalf of trans men. He was perhaps the first transgender man to publicly identify as gay, and is largely responsible for the modern understanding of sexual orientation and gender identity as distinct, unrelated concepts.
A transsexual person is someone who experiences a gender identity that is inconsistent with their assigned sex, and desires to permanently transition to the sex or gender with which they identify, usually seeking medical assistance to help them align their body with their identified sex or gender.
Press for Change (PFC) is a UK-based campaign group focusing on the rights and treatment of trans people. Its stated aim is "seeking respect and equality for all trans people in the UK". The group led the campaign for full legal recognition for transgender people living in Britain including the right to marry. The organisation began on 27 February 1992 and its founders included Mark Rees and Stephen Whittle.
Transgender rights in the United Kingdom have varied significantly over time, with the British transgender community facing ongoing challenges not experienced by cisgender (cis) Britons. These include various laws and public attitudes in regards to identity documents, as well as anti-discrimination measures used by or pertaining to transgender people, in the areas of employment, education, housing and social services, amongst others.
Roberta Perkins was an Australian sociologist, writer, and transgender rights and sex worker rights activist. She wrote several books and multiple academic articles on the semi-nomadic lives of transgender sex workers, and established the first assistance center for transgender people in Australia.
This article addresses the history of transgender people across the British Isles in the United Kingdom, the British colonies and the Kingdom of England until the present day. Transgender people were historically recognised in the UK by varying titles and cultural gender indicators, such as dress. People dressing and living differently from their sex assignment at birth and contributing to various aspects of British history and culture have been documented from the 14th century to the present day. In the 20th century, advances in medicine, social and biological sciences and transgender activism have influenced transgender life in the UK.
The Transsexual Phenomenon is a medical textbook published by American endocrinologist and sexologist Harry Benjamin in 1966 with The Julian Press. The text is notable for its examination of transsexualism not as a psychological issue, but rather as a somatic disorder that should be treated through medicine. Benjamin argues that transvestism and transsexuality are a spectrum of conditions, requiring different treatments that ranged from hormone replacement therapy to surgical intervention.
Louise Lawrence (1912–1976) was an American transgender activist, artist, writer and lecturer. During the mid-20th century, she organized a network of gender non-conforming people across the US and abroad, and advocated for transgender issues. She was an early founder of the magazine, Transvestia. Academic and historian Susan Stryker wrote, "If there is an unheralded founder of the transgender community in the United States, it’s Louise Lawrence.".
Transvestism and Transsexualism in Modern Society, also known as The First National TV.TS Conference, was a conference held in Leeds, England, from 15 to 17 March 1974. It was the first such event to be organised by members of the community. With an educational remit, the conference sought to further understanding of issues faced by transvestites and trans women.
Carol S. Riddell is a British feminist and socialist sociologist and transgender lesbian who was active in the UK Women's liberation movement in the 1970s. She is known for authoring Divided Sisterhood, the first feminist critique of Janice Raymond's book The Transsexual Empire.
Della Aleksander was a teacher and campaigner for trans rights. She was a co-producer of an episode of the current affairs programme Open Door, which was the first to feature trans women. She was a member of fascist organisations, such as the League of St George.
Full Personality Expression was an organization for heterosexual male crossdressers formed in 1962 by Virginia Prince from her earlier LA-based Hose & Heels Club. It was renamed in 1976, alongside merging with Carol Beecroft's Mademoiselle Sorority, to Tri-Ess.