{"id":3611,"date":"2022-06-23T11:09:50","date_gmt":"2022-06-23T10:09:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/diversity\/?p=3611"},"modified":"2022-06-23T11:09:50","modified_gmt":"2022-06-23T10:09:50","slug":"april-ashley-transgender-pioneers-spectacular-legacy-to-be-celebrated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/diversity\/2022\/06\/23\/april-ashley-transgender-pioneers-spectacular-legacy-to-be-celebrated\/","title":{"rendered":"April Ashley: Transgender pioneer&#8217;s &#8216;spectacular legacy&#8217; to be celebrated"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-default\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"976\" height=\"549\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/diversity\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2022\/06\/125579361_gettyimages-485603047.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3612\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/diversity\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2022\/06\/125579361_gettyimages-485603047.jpg 976w, https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/diversity\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2022\/06\/125579361_gettyimages-485603047-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/diversity\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2022\/06\/125579361_gettyimages-485603047-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 976px) 100vw, 976px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The friends of transgender pioneer April Ashley are to celebrate her &#8220;spectacular&#8221; legacy in her home city.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Liverpool-born Ashley,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/entertainment-arts-59816881\">who died in 2021<\/a>, was one of the first people to undergo surgery and went on to become a famous model, restaurateur and actress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Her personal papers document everything from dinners with David Hockney to correspondence with Elizabeth Taylor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Her friends Lou Muddle and Bev Ayre said a new archive would show who she really was and &#8220;not just the myth&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The pair, who are both from Liverpool, were tasked by Ashley to sort through her belongings after discovering she &#8220;kept absolutely everything&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ms Ayre said Ashley had been &#8220;truly spectacular&#8221; and was &#8220;family to us&#8221;, though she admits that closeness came with more than a touch of stardust.  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-england-merseyside-61835200\">More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The friends of transgender pioneer April Ashley are to celebrate her &#8220;spectacular&#8221; legacy in her home city. Liverpool-born Ashley,&nbsp;who died in 2021, was one of the first people to undergo surgery and went on to &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lgbt"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/diversity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/diversity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/diversity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/diversity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/diversity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/diversity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3611\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/diversity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/diversity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/diversity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}