| Revision as of 11:29, 8 December 2021 editVoid if removed (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users2,359 edits →Content: Make clear that the point of the book is the hypothesis that Forbes was trans, not intersex. Make clear that the book is making claims about the ease with which birth certificates could be changed by trans individuals.Tag: Reverted← Previous edit | Revision as of 11:37, 8 December 2021 edit undoVoid if removed (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users2,359 edits →Content: Couch assertions that Ewan Forbes fraudulently obtained testicular tissue as speculativeTag: RevertedNext edit → | ||
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| The book discusses the life history of aristocrat Ewan Forbes who was ] but in adulthood changed his birth certificate to record his sex as male. The central thesis of the book is that this change, rather than being as a result of an undiagnosed intersex condition as previously believed, was in reality because Forbes was a transman. In support of this argument, Playdon pieces together his life history, detailing how from a young age of six he was observed by his family to act purposefully as a boy. Supported by his mother, he was allowed to access medical specialists from the age of 15 and was given an early version of synthetically produced ] as ]. Playdon asserts that these interventions allowed him to go through a ] and develop ]. The book claims that at that time in the 1930s, it was allowed for trans individuals to go through transition and then alter their birth certificates of their own accord, without requiring approval through a certificate as has become required through the ]. This was done by Forbes, who then was married to a woman, and became a ]. However, his change of legal sex was contested after both his father and elder brother died, making him next in line of succession for the baronet status.<ref name="i"/> | The book discusses the life history of aristocrat Ewan Forbes who was ] but in adulthood changed his birth certificate to record his sex as male. The central thesis of the book is that this change, rather than being as a result of an undiagnosed intersex condition as previously believed, was in reality because Forbes was a transman. In support of this argument, Playdon pieces together his life history, detailing how from a young age of six he was observed by his family to act purposefully as a boy. Supported by his mother, he was allowed to access medical specialists from the age of 15 and was given an early version of synthetically produced ] as ]. Playdon asserts that these interventions allowed him to go through a ] and develop ]. The book claims that at that time in the 1930s, it was allowed for trans individuals to go through transition and then alter their birth certificates of their own accord, without requiring approval through a certificate as has become required through the ]. This was done by Forbes, who then was married to a woman, and became a ]. However, his change of legal sex was contested after both his father and elder brother died, making him next in line of succession for the baronet status.<ref name="i"/> | ||
| A cousin of the family contested the inheritance, however, leading to a court case in 1968 and his legal team had to deal with a problem in common understanding of the terminology that had changed recently.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s)/no by-line.--> |date=14 October 2021 |title=The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes: And the History of the Trans Experience |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-9821-3946-9 |work=] |access-date=26 November 2021}}</ref> Prior to that decade, trans individuals were considered a subset of ] conditions, but ] pushed in the 1960s for being transgender to be labeled as a mental illness. This not only threatened his inheritance, but also his marriage, as if declared female by the courts, his marriage would be considered ], as same-sex marriage was not legal at the time. Opting for a private trial so as not to have his personal life exposed to the general public, Forbes agreed to an examination by doctors and to pay for the legal fees of the prosecution. Although the doctors defined Forbes as having "female anatomy with some male characteristics", |
A cousin of the family contested the inheritance, however, leading to a court case in 1968 and his legal team had to deal with a problem in common understanding of the terminology that had changed recently.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s)/no by-line.--> |date=14 October 2021 |title=The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes: And the History of the Trans Experience |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-9821-3946-9 |work=] |access-date=26 November 2021}}</ref> Prior to that decade, trans individuals were considered a subset of ] conditions, but ] pushed in the 1960s for being transgender to be labeled as a mental illness. This not only threatened his inheritance, but also his marriage, as if declared female by the courts, his marriage would be considered ], as same-sex marriage was not legal at the time. Opting for a private trial so as not to have his personal life exposed to the general public, Forbes agreed to an examination by doctors and to pay for the legal fees of the prosecution. Although the doctors defined Forbes as having "female anatomy with some male characteristics" and found in his favour, the book suggests that this may have been achieved by using some obtained tissue of the ] from another individual to act as his own, resulting in him winning the case. This allowed for a legal precedent for trans individuals to win cases of primogeniture inheritance and became a threat to the aristocracy of the time, resulting in them silencing the results of the court decision so that it could not be used as a reference in subsequent trials.<ref name="i"/> | ||
| A following legal trial regarding ] in 1970 involved her husband, ], trying to have an ] of their marriage in order to not have to split their wealth in the divorce. Corbett argued that because Ashley was transgender, their marriage wasn't legal from the beginning, despite Ashley having fully transitioned and him being aware of her trans background prior to their marriage. He argued based on her having not changed her birth certificate that the marriage was void. The trial judge forced the lawyers for the defense to not mention the two years prior Forbes precedent case and also made the doctors involved in the physical examination redo the medical inspection after they stated Ashley had a "perfectly usual vagina". They again reported that there was no exception to their inspection and the judge instead ruled in Corbett's favor despite the evidence, stating that Ashley was a "homosexual transvestite who's mentally ill". This resulted in the '']'' trial serving as the precedent for later cases, with the Forbes trial continuing to be suppressed from public knowledge.<ref name="i"/> | A following legal trial regarding ] in 1970 involved her husband, ], trying to have an ] of their marriage in order to not have to split their wealth in the divorce. Corbett argued that because Ashley was transgender, their marriage wasn't legal from the beginning, despite Ashley having fully transitioned and him being aware of her trans background prior to their marriage. He argued based on her having not changed her birth certificate that the marriage was void. The trial judge forced the lawyers for the defense to not mention the two years prior Forbes precedent case and also made the doctors involved in the physical examination redo the medical inspection after they stated Ashley had a "perfectly usual vagina". They again reported that there was no exception to their inspection and the judge instead ruled in Corbett's favor despite the evidence, stating that Ashley was a "homosexual transvestite who's mentally ill". This resulted in the '']'' trial serving as the precedent for later cases, with the Forbes trial continuing to be suppressed from public knowledge.<ref name="i"/> | ||
Revision as of 11:37, 8 December 2021
Nonfiction historical book published in 2021
 Cover art of American release | |
| Author | Zoë Playdon |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Scribner, Bloomsbury Publishing |
| Publication date | 2 November 2021; 11 November 2021 |
| Media type | Print / Digital |
| Pages | 384 |
| ISBN | 978-1-982139-46-9 |
| Website | https://www.zoeplaydon.com/books/the-hidden-case-of-ewan-forbes |
The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes: And the Unwritten History of the Trans Experience is a nonfiction historical book written by Zoë Playdon and published by Scribner on 2 November 2021. A UK version of the book with the alternative subtitle The Transgender Trial that Threatened to Upend the British Establishment was published by Bloomsbury Publishing on 11 November 2021. It details the life story of Sir Ewan Forbes, 11th Baronet and the 1968 legal dispute over a change of sex on his birth certificate, and the inheritance of his baronet title. The impacts of his case, how the results were suppressed by the government due to the potential impact on inheritance across the country, and the subsequent case in the country involving a trans individual, Corbett v Corbett, that had a direct forced ignorance of the evidence are main focuses of the book.
The rights for a TV mini-series of the book's events were bought by publisher Synchronicity Films on 31 October 2021, and the series will be written by Sukey Fisher.
Background and production
After Playdon co-founded the Parliamentary Forum on Gender Identity in 1994, her ongoing human rights work included assisting in a legal case in 1996 regarding trans rights. The issue of primogeniture was a primary component and issue in the case and a lawyer working alongside her on the case pointed out that until that subject was laid out clearly in the courts, such cases involving trans rights and inheritance would continue, prompting her to begin looking into past legal decisions. She had been aware that it was once common for trans individuals to transition and have their birth certificate changed to allow for inheritance, but that ended abruptly in 1970. It was through this investigation that Playdon became aware of Ewan Forbes and his legal history and subsequent cases to his that altered British law significantly for the trans community.
Playdon found multiple difficulties in uncovering information regarding the Forbes trial, as details had been covered up by the Scottish government for five decades. A request to the Home Office in 1996 went unanswered and employing the help of a member of Parliament only had them receive two answers from the Lord Advocate. First, he told them that no such case ever occurred and then, after insistence on the subject, told Playdon that it "would not be appropriate for me to… disclose the details". Filing a complaint in 1998 to then Home Secretary Michael Howard, she was finally given the ability to view the legal documents from Forbes' trial. After the Succession to the Crown Act 2013 failed to fix the issue among hereditary peers and trans cases regarding inheritance continued, Playdon decided to continue her research on the legal history and compile a book on the subject.
Content
The book discusses the life history of aristocrat Ewan Forbes who was assigned female at birth but in adulthood changed his birth certificate to record his sex as male. The central thesis of the book is that this change, rather than being as a result of an undiagnosed intersex condition as previously believed, was in reality because Forbes was a transman. In support of this argument, Playdon pieces together his life history, detailing how from a young age of six he was observed by his family to act purposefully as a boy. Supported by his mother, he was allowed to access medical specialists from the age of 15 and was given an early version of synthetically produced testosterone as hormone therapy. Playdon asserts that these interventions allowed him to go through a male puberty and develop male secondary sex characteristics. The book claims that at that time in the 1930s, it was allowed for trans individuals to go through transition and then alter their birth certificates of their own accord, without requiring approval through a certificate as has become required through the Gender Recognition Act 2004. This was done by Forbes, who then was married to a woman, and became a general practitioner. However, his change of legal sex was contested after both his father and elder brother died, making him next in line of succession for the baronet status.
A cousin of the family contested the inheritance, however, leading to a court case in 1968 and his legal team had to deal with a problem in common understanding of the terminology that had changed recently. Prior to that decade, trans individuals were considered a subset of intersex conditions, but psychiatrists pushed in the 1960s for being transgender to be labeled as a mental illness. This not only threatened his inheritance, but also his marriage, as if declared female by the courts, his marriage would be considered perjury, as same-sex marriage was not legal at the time. Opting for a private trial so as not to have his personal life exposed to the general public, Forbes agreed to an examination by doctors and to pay for the legal fees of the prosecution. Although the doctors defined Forbes as having "female anatomy with some male characteristics" and found in his favour, the book suggests that this may have been achieved by using some obtained tissue of the testes from another individual to act as his own, resulting in him winning the case. This allowed for a legal precedent for trans individuals to win cases of primogeniture inheritance and became a threat to the aristocracy of the time, resulting in them silencing the results of the court decision so that it could not be used as a reference in subsequent trials.
A following legal trial regarding April Ashley in 1970 involved her husband, Arthur Corbett, trying to have an annulment of their marriage in order to not have to split their wealth in the divorce. Corbett argued that because Ashley was transgender, their marriage wasn't legal from the beginning, despite Ashley having fully transitioned and him being aware of her trans background prior to their marriage. He argued based on her having not changed her birth certificate that the marriage was void. The trial judge forced the lawyers for the defense to not mention the two years prior Forbes precedent case and also made the doctors involved in the physical examination redo the medical inspection after they stated Ashley had a "perfectly usual vagina". They again reported that there was no exception to their inspection and the judge instead ruled in Corbett's favor despite the evidence, stating that Ashley was a "homosexual transvestite who's mentally ill". This resulted in the Corbett v Corbett trial serving as the precedent for later cases, with the Forbes trial continuing to be suppressed from public knowledge.
Both the beginning and the end of the book also discusses other events going on prior to Forbes' case and more contemporarily involving trans rights, including the first 1931 gender transition done for Lili Elbe and more recent film depictions of trans people as mass murderers in media such as Dressed to Kill and The Silence of the Lambs. Playdon also brings up and discusses current legal issues the trans community faces, including bathroom bills and opposition from both religious fundamentalist groups and trans exclusionary radical feminists.
Critical reception
Kirkus Reviews praised Playdon for successfully combing through all of the available evidence on Forbes' case despite having no personal documents of Forbes to use as background and concluded that the work is a "thoughtful and well-researched historical excavation of an important chapter in the fight for trans rights". Sarah Schulman, writing for The New York Times, described the book as "erudite, passionate, occasionally frustrating, yet ultimately persuasive" in the subject matter and history it describes. In The Sunday Times, Christina Patterson described Playdon as a "skillful storyteller" and while the history "may be right" regarding the threat to primogeniture the case held, Patterson found the "polemic" of the book regarding the reason behind the judge's decisions in the case and discussion of trans-exclusionary radical feminists in recent history to be unconvincing. The Times reviewer Sarah Ditum described the book as "less than thrilling" due to the details of the case included and considered Playdon's discussion of the gender spectrum "scientifically eccentric" and overall called the work a "campaigner's book".
Rebekah Kati for the Library Journal concluded that the book was a "fascinating look into the changing landscape of trans rights in the United Kingdom" and recommended it for anyone who wants to know how trans rights have changed over time. Writing in The Herald, reviewer Dani Garavelli lamented the lack of personal details about Forbes' opinion and stances on subjects due to never keeping private writings and wished that Playdon had characterized the conflict with Forbes' sister Margaret differently due to the issue of Margaret being the eldest sibling and a lesbian, making her unable to be the heir for the baronet and being unable to marry her partner. Garavelli concludes that the book's convincing argument came from "the ability to empathise with Forbes's suffering, much more than proselytizing, that left me wondering why society makes it so difficult for trans people to be themselves." Patrick Strudwick in the i newspaper referred to the book as "one of the most important pieces of investigative journalism ever written about trans people".
For The Times Literary Supplement, Christine Burns considered the book to successfully be a "complex story compellingly told" for its ability to fully consider all the aspects of Forbes' case and subsequent events. As a part of the Australian Book Review December 2021 issue, Yves Rees positively described the book's courtroom scenes as "a tour de force of empathetic history" and considered Playdon to be the "ideal person" to be writing on this history. Rees ultimately says that the book promises to "do powerful work in service of trans liberation" alongside other publications of 2021 such as Shon Faye’s The Transgender Issue and Finn Mackay’s Female Masculinities and the Gender Wars. Hugo Vickers as a reviewer for The Oldie complimented the ambitious nature of the book as a general trans history coverage of the past century interspersed with Forbes' life story, noting that he as a "general reader" would have gotten lost in the former without the latter to keep as a steady throughline of the book's historical plot.
See also
- LGBT history
- Timeline of LGBT history in the United Kingdom
- List of transgender publications
- 2021 in literature
References
- ^ Strudwick, Patrick (10 November 2021). "The secret court case 50 years ago that has robbed transgender people of their rights ever since". i. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
- Ravindran, Manori (31 October 2021). "'Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes' Book, About Scottish Trans Pioneer, to Be Adapted by Synchronicity Films". Variety. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
- ^ Burns, Christine (12 November 2021). "Silenced all these years: A landmark story of trans rights". The Times Literary Supplement. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
- "The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes: And the History of the Trans Experience". Publishers Weekly. 14 October 2021. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
- Beale, Lewis (24 November 2021). "The Landmark Trans Case That Got Hushed Up for Decades". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
- "Book Reviews: The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes". Kirkus Reviews. 7 September 2021. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
- Schulman, Sarah (2 November 2021). "The Secret 53-Year-Old British Case That Could Have Legalized Trans Identity". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
- Patterson, Christina (30 October 2021). "The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes by Zoë Playdon review – the remarkable story of the lord and a secret transgender test case". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
- Ditum, Sarah (29 October 2021). "The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes by Zoë Playdon review – the secret case of the trans aristo". The Times. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
- Kati, Rebekah (November 2021). "Social Sciences: The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes". Library Journal. 146 (11): 92. Retrieved 26 November 2021 – via ProQuest.
- Garavelli, Dani (13 November 2021). "The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes by Zoë Playdon, reviewed by Dani Garavelli". The Herald. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
- Rees, Yves (December 2021). "The pains of inheritance: A new trans history of modern Britain". Australian Book Review (438). Retrieved 2 December 2021.
- Vickers, Hugo (December 2021). "The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes, by Zoё Playdon". The Oldie: 57-59. ISSN 0965-2507.
Further reading
- Playdon, Zoë (29 November 2021). "The little known trans case of Ewan Forbes". Late Night Live (Interview). Interviewed by Phillip Adams. Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
- Playdon, Zoë (20 November 2021). "A secret trial that transformed transgender rights". BBC History (Interview). Interviewed by Matt Elton. Immediate Media Company.