{"id":87225,"date":"2022-01-02T23:15:57","date_gmt":"2022-01-03T07:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/?p=87225"},"modified":"2022-01-02T23:15:57","modified_gmt":"2022-01-03T07:15:57","slug":"rip-lady-april-ashley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/blog\/2022\/01\/02\/rip-lady-april-ashley\/","title":{"rendered":"RIP Lady April Ashley"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The date \u2013 April 11, 1988.&nbsp; The place \u2013 the 60<sup>th<\/sup> <em>Academy Awards<\/em>.&nbsp; My first time at the <strong><em>Oscars<\/em><\/strong>.&nbsp; During an interval, I saw an elegant woman who was clearly \u201csomebody\u201d.&nbsp; I approached and told her she looked like a cross between <strong>Maria Callas <\/strong>and <strong>Vivien Leigh<\/strong>.&nbsp; She had a throaty laugh and said, \u201cDarling, I hope you\u2019re referring to when they were still alive!\u201d&nbsp; Her name was <strong>Lady April Ashley<\/strong>.&nbsp; The next day, <strong>Jackie Collins <\/strong>filled me in on April\u2019s colorful past.&nbsp; She was born <strong>George Jamieson <\/strong>and was the second (known) Briton to undergo male-to-female gender reassignment surgery \u2013 in Casablanca (where <em>Two People<\/em> was shot).&nbsp; After becoming a high-profile fashion model, she married <strong>Lord Arthur Corbett <\/strong>\u2013 who she swore knew all about her past.&nbsp; However, his family pressured Artie to have the union annulled and leave April penniless.&nbsp; Disillusioned by England, she went to America.<\/p>\n<p>After our brief <em>Oscars <\/em>encounter, I was shocked to see her turn up on <strong><em>The People\u2019s Court<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 where she was sued for keeping gifts from rich men (like that\u2019s a bad thing).&nbsp; <strong>Judge Wapner <\/strong>not only sided with April, but also flirted with her.&nbsp; I tracked her down in San Diego, where she was working for <strong><em>Greenpeace <\/em><\/strong>and living with two women\u2026 both named <strong>Anita<\/strong>!&nbsp; Eventually, she went back to England and became an outspoken advocate for transgender rights.&nbsp; After decades as an outsider, she was lauded as a trailblazer.&nbsp; In 2005, she was legally recognized as female.&nbsp; In 2012, she was honored with a <em>Member of the Order of the British Empire <\/em>(<em>MBE<\/em>) \u2013 presented by <strong>Prince Charles<\/strong> \u2013 for her work for transgender equality.&nbsp; In 2015, the <strong><em>National Museum in Liverpool <\/em><\/strong>assembled an enormous exhibition in her honor.&nbsp; What meant the world to her was having young trans people thank her \u2013 she realized her struggle ensured their lives would be easier.&nbsp; <strong>Lady April Ashley <\/strong>made a difference.&nbsp; She passed away over the holidays at age 86.&nbsp; Rest in peace, my dear, funny, fabulous friend.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The date \u2013 April 11, 1988.&nbsp; The place \u2013 the 60th Academy Awards.&nbsp; My first time at the Oscars.&nbsp; During an interval, I saw an elegant woman who was clearly \u201csomebody\u201d.&nbsp; I approached and told her she looked like a cross between Maria Callas and Vivien Leigh.&nbsp; She had a throaty laugh and said, \u201cDarling,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87225"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87226,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87225\/revisions\/87226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}