She modeled for Vogue, partied with John Lennon and Mick Jagger, and married into minor nobility, all while fighting for legal recognition of her gender.
CHRISTOPHER STEVENS: April Ashley made British history in 1960 by risking her life to have gender reassignment surgery. She declared: I decided I was never going to hide who I was.
Anisse Gross April 12, 2021Updated: April 12, 2021, 6:43 pm
The town of Trinidad played such a key role that the phrase “going to Trinidad” became a euphemism for gender-reaffirming surgery. Photo: Bower House
Between 1969 and 2010, the small town of Trinidad, Colo., saw nearly 6,000 medical pilgrims pass through, seeking gender-affirming surgery from Dr. Stanley Biber and then successor Marci Bowers. This tiny spot played such a pivotal role, the phrase “going to Trinidad” became a euphemism for the surgery itself.
Martin J. Smith, an award-winning journalist and former senior editor of the Los Angeles Times Magazine who also has penned five crime novels and four nonfiction books, brings this overlooked chapter to life, structuring the book around the lives of two of Biber’s patients: Claudine Griggs and Walt Heyer.