Role Model

I was deep in the closet when I first heard about her and I went out and bought her book.

This Trans Supermodel Was Outed In The ‘80s, Lost Everything And Became A Pioneer
“As painful as it was to endure what I did in my life, it’s all worth it when you hear you’ve saved lives or helped people find direction in theirs.”
Huffington Post
By James Michael Nichols
June 19, 2016

Long before Laverne Cox, Caitlyn Jenner, or any of the trans women currently making waves in entertainment, fashion and culture, there was Caroline Cossey.

Born in England in the 1950s, Cossey came to live as her authentic self and rose to prominence in the fashion world at a time when it was extremely dangerous — and potentially career-ending — to be transgender. With roots as a showgirl and performer, Cossey went on to work as a model under the name “Tula.” Living full-time as a woman — and not openly transgender — she appeared in the James Bond film “For Your Eyes Only” and modeled for Playboy.

Following these two high-profile appearances, Cossey was outed by a tabloid as transgender and lost everything — in both her career and personal life. The years that followed the outing, in the words of Cossey, “propelled me into the realm of activism” as she engaged in a high-profile legal battle with the British government. “I wasn’t going to spend the rest of my life feeling ashamed or apologizing for it and I didn’t think anyone else should either,” she says.

I feared going out to buy her book, I figured that when I picked the book off the shelf lights would shine down on me and siren would go off, over the loudspeaker would be an announcement “We have a Transvestite in isle 3!” So with great trepidation I picked up the book and walked over to the checkout and nothing happened, I don’t even think that the clerk knew what the book was about.

Then later I went through the same thing when I bought the issue of Playboy that had an article about her.

She is one of our pioneers, she blazed the trail for many of us.