A random collection of over 1910 books and audiobooks authored by or about my transgender, intersex sisters, and gender-nonconforming persons all over the world. I read some of them, and I was inspired by some of them. I met some of the authors and heroines, some of them are my best friends, and I had the pleasure and honor of interviewing some of them. If you know of any transgender biography that I have not covered yet, please let me know.

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Home » , , , » Roberta Cowell - Roberta Cowell's Story

Roberta Cowell - Roberta Cowell's Story

Roberta Elizabeth Marshall Cowell (1918-2011) was a British racing driver and Second World War fighter pilot. She was the first known British trans woman to undergo gender reassignment surgery in 1948.

"For the first thirty-three years of my life, I was Robert Cowell, an aggressive male who had piloted a Spitfire during the war {WW2}, designed and driven racing cars, married, and become the father of two children.

Since May 18th, 1951, I have been Roberta Cowell, female. I have become woman physically, psychologically, glandularly and legally. This incredible thing was not an overnight change. I had always known that my body had certain feminine characteristics. My aggressively masculine manner compensated for this, at least as far as normal men and women were concerned, but homosexuals invariably took me for one of themselves.

I was not a homosexual; my inclinations, as they developed, were entirely heterosexual. I was horrified and repelled by homosexual overtures, and this loathing included any boy who showed the slightest sign of being a ‘sissy.’ I could be friendly with other men, but I could not bear any form of physical contact with them. It was impossible for me to stand having someone link his arm in mine, and even shaking hands was unpleasant."

"Looking back now at my life as Robert Cowell, I can see how many of my ambitions, dislikes and prejudices came from my realisation of my physical abnormalities. I was passionately enthusiastic about motor-cars and motor-racing. It was the be-all and nearly the end-all of my existence. I did not suspect, until I was psychoanalysed in 1948, that racing was for me a symbol of courage, power and virility.

Unconsciously I knew I was not a normal male, and I desperately needed my symbol as a reassurance. When I finally understood the full truth about myself, both mental and physical, that tremendous and all-pervading enthusiasm for motor-racing vanished completely.


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