Attitude’s Icon Award for Lifetime Achievement: April Ashley

In 1960, at the age of 25, April Ashley became one of the first British people to undergo sex reassignment surgery. Now, at 80, the grande dame looks back on a truly iconic life. We’re thrilled to be able to give her the Icon Award for Lifetime Achievement, supported by Sky.

Back in the 1960s you could count the number of trans people in public life on one, perfectly manicuredhand – France had the beautiful performer Coccinelle and America had the celebrated memoirist Christine Jorgenson, but in the UK, for many years, for many people, April Ashley was the only trans person they’d ever heard of. She became one of the first Britons to undergo genital reconstruction surgery in the 1960s and, a few years later, was outed by the tabloids at the height of her modelling career. To say she’s been around the block would be putting it lightly. “I had to go through six weeks of electric shock treatment as a teenager, which in those days was very primitive,” she recalls today, in perfect BBC English. “Your eyeballs bled.” Say hello to the grande dame of 20th Century transgenderism.

Attitude’s own Paris Lees has a full interview with Ashley, which you can read in our new issue – out to download 11pm tonight from attitudedigital.co.uk and in shops tomorrow (Thursday October 15).