As for the nurses who looked after me, they couldn't have been kinder or more patient as in lay there in my M&S nightie, from which tubes emerged carrying all manner of bodily fluids to various plastic bags. Now that the scars from her facial surgery in November have healed she is finally ready at almost 62 to go fulltime as Diana. I mean, just how lunatic do you have to be to transfer a male sex-offender convicted of raping women to a womens prison, just because he has suddenly decided that hes female, too? I dont know if anyone suddenly decides they are female, but while prisoners may lie I want trans women treated as women, even by prisons. It has to be said that the woman I encounter today is a world away from the man I knew during a period in the 1990s when, as journalists, we would frequently find ourselves writing on opposite sides of the gender divide. Expert investigation reveals the truth about Princess Diana's - CBC She was due to have completion surgery in 2020 but of course this was delayed because of the Covid pandemic. Claim your profile Back to Diana Thomas's profile. Most normal people, who don't insist on seeing everything through a distorting lens of radical politics, have no problem accepting someone's right to live their best life. How did Bashir, a relatively unknown BBC journalist, win this extraordinary interview and, crucially, Diana's trust? but that doesn't make me any less of a woman. He also travels to the U.K. to meet an expert who prepared a report for the official British inquest into Diana's death. As it was impossible to get my surgery on the NHS during Covid, I had to go private. "She said to me, 'I didn't know how many enemies I had. And the thing about me is that although the name on my driving licence, tax return and NHS record is Diana Thomas, I was born male. Comments from 'unknown' and anonymous will also be declined. Meanwhile, catch up on the last two columns here: She spent 40,000 on hormones, laser, electrolysis, and coaching to feminise her face, hair, body and voice. Afew days ago, I had an operation to correct a condition that had gone from being an inconvenience to something potentially much more dangerous. Amazon.com: Diana Thomas: books, biography, latest update Politically, I think we have to find a way to acknowledge and even celebrate the identity of trans people that does not undermine everyone else's identity. I mean, the first few times I went out as Diana I w o u l d w a l k down the street and my knees would be knocking, but here is the thing: I could never go back to being David. David Thomas.Media: The dirty world of Mr Punch: Punch is fighting back by hitting below the belt. "[Diana] was taken from the car, and she was conscious when they took her out," he says. You have to own up to who you are, and it feels so much better when you do, she continues. I had seen David several times during his transition and wed chatted about facial hair and breasts, but nothing prepared me for how moved I felt when I watched the elegant woman come tripping along the pavement with a dainty, ladylike step. As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work. She began her journalism career working for the Style section of The Washington Post in 1988. About Talent Champions Shes six feet tall, and she used to be an athlete, a rower. She was due to have completion surgery in 2020 but of course this was delayed because of the Covid pandemic. David went on to become a prolific award-winning journalist and editor of Punch, settling down to married life with two daughters and a son. Because, bless them, they came in and said, Hi,Diana, and kissed me on both cheeks in exactly the way they did to the other women around the table. Diana is enormously encouraged by the way in which her friends and her 86-year old ex-diplomat father in particular have accepted and supported her in a manner that she says has reinforced her belief that most people are kind and good. Diana has no regrets, and there is nothing that she has gone through that she wouldnt do again. . Oct 2014. In 2010, McQueen killed himself; a year later Galliano was fired from the creative helm of Christian Dior for a drunken anti-Semitic outburst in a Paris caf. Thats the internalised transphobia again. I spent so much of my life living in shame, as if Id committed a terrible sin and it made me feel very vulnerable. For the first few years of her life, Thomas lived in Moscow and has also lived in Washington, D.C. and Havana, Cuba. Jun 4, 2020 Replying to @Telegraph and @TelegraphMag Not a woman. "[11] The column ended on 19 December 2020, with Thomas bidding an emotional farewell to her readers as she reflected on her harrowing transgender journey. "It was survivable," Treasure says in the film. A groundbreaking new documentary examines her final years and what really led to the accident that night in a Paris tunnel. Diana Thomas is an associate professor of economics at Creighton University. In 2021 she went to a private hospital for an enucleation of the prostate. She spent 25 years as a journalist,[6] working for publications such as The Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday. The comments below have been moderated in advance. You might wait years to see a specialist psychiatrist and not want hormones obtained illicitly. And just as it is racist to deny the British identity of a fellow citizen simply because they are an immigrant, so it would be transphobic to deny my legally female gender just because I was never a little girl. But D is not good for girls names. Some of us cross right to the other side. Which brings me back to those lovely nurses looking after me this past week. She also writes regularly for Architectural Digest and Elle Decor. In 2019 Thomas announced that she was now Diana, and has written a column in the Daily Telegraph about her experiences in transition. Most trans women dont have 40,000 to spend in that way. This should come as no surprise. He was Young Journalist of the Year at age 24, a magazine editor at 25 and in 1989 the youngest ever editor of the 150-year-old Punch magazine where he stayed for three years. I must say that I never understood why the prospect of trans people in ladies loos is scary. I go in there to have a pee. LGB All Liars, Graham Linehan and other extreme phobes have created a bogeyman, the sexual predator who pretends to be trans in order to enter womens spaces but is not really trans. Shes trying: she makes up more than most sixty-year-olds, has worked on her voice and deportment (bleugh), and she thinks she should be more acceptable than my poor friend who wears jeans and gets taken for a bloke with long hair. she performed In the article, she seeks to portray herself as a reasonable trans woman, when really she is refusing to stand up for trans people whose trans problems she does not think she will face. She attended Radnor High School and graduated in 1981. They assume that their supposed moral superiority gives them the right to say whatever they like. The screen for King Charles' coronation anointing is revealed, Devastating tornado picks up car and hurls it through air in Florida, Ukraine drone strike hits major fuel depot in port Sevastopol, Women's rights activists and pro-trans campaigners separated, Historic chairs to be reused by the King for the coronation service, Hundreds of Household Division members rehearse for coronation, Russian freight train derails and bursts into flames after explosion, 'You motherf***ers don't understand': Bam Margera details 'turmoil', Moment large saltwater crocodile snatches pet dog off beach in QLD, Doctor slams Laurence Fox for 'spewing out biased views', Monstrous tornado seen bearing down on Palm Beach, Braverman: People crossing Channel are 'at odds with British values'. Diana Thomas - Wikipedia But I also blub my eyes out to Strictly Come Dancing and I rather like the fact that I can do both of those things.. Conversations At Scarfes Bar: Diana Thomas. Haters cant abuse you if they dont notice you. Homosexuals are pioneers for the male sex. So, if I explain why JK Rowlings opinions offend moderate, intelligent trans people, theyll say things like, I find your arguments unpersuasive, or, Of course, youll never be a woman. There are, it should be said, certain areas of Dianas past life that are not up for discussion. That would be so much more fake. My father, bless him, was over 80 when I told him. Charlotte Metcalf. She suffers dreadfully from internalised transphobia. Id had enough of that. They experiment with attitudes and lifestyles that may take decades to reach the straight community. The facial surgery, for example, hasnt left her with that alien look it sometimes does, but it was extensive, and the shoulder-length brunette bob she boasts today involved an initial process of hair weaving and extensions that requires regular upkeep at a specialist salon. The revealing segment made headlines around the world after Diana exposed her and Prince Charles's extramarital affairs. But he only ever thought of my wellbeing and happiness. I had quite nice boy legs, but they were hairy and let me tell you, being zapped 4,000 times in one session is a whole new world of pain. [10] Julie Bindel, the feminist activist and writer, has criticised the column, pointing out that Thomas was previously a men's rights activist. Caught in the crossfire of the pro and anti-trans lobbies are endless public institutions, so terrified of defying the latest woke diktats that they have entirely lost the faintest vestige of common sense. Now she is 62 and divorced. No, I wouldnt enter into a relationship until some time after I have had the operation, she says carefully after a thoughtful pause. Now we meet again at Scarfes and Dianas in a celebratory mood. Who would have thought it?. Strong leaders are those who successfully navigate a great shift: from tactical doer to strategic leader. Those dreams came true, but none of them would have been possible had I transitioned back then. [12], As Diana Thomas, she has written in her defence that transitioning could be considered analogous to immigration: If someone born in India comes to Britain legally, passes the citizenship test and gets a UK passport, who dares say, Youre not British? The privileged trans woman | Clare Flourish JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association. Yet I still believe that World Rugby would be right to ban transwomen from female rugby on safety grounds. Today she can finally reveal her new identity, DAVID IN 2011; DIANA IN 2020: 'I didnt want to be a Davina or a Dora and I am absolutely not a Daisy, so its Diana, which has five letters like David', DIANA IN 2020: 'Sometimes people say to me, Why do you want to be a woman? You've got no idea", "My transgender diary: 'I don't want to be famous for being trans', "Conversations At Scarfes Bar: Diana Thomas | Interviews", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Diana_Thomas_(writer)&oldid=1148174702, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 4 April 2023, at 14:25. She estimates that transition (including facial surgery) has cost 40,000 funded by a house sale and cashing in a pension. Her hairline was back above her ears. Her 87-year-old father succumbed to Covid. What impact did Diana's revealing BBC interview have on the final years of her life? . My experience of coming out as transgender and living as a trans woman has overwhelmingly been one of kindness, acceptance, tolerance and well-wishing. If she did not have internalised transphobia, she would have more dignity than to write about her private prostate surgery in the Daily Mail. Articles by Diana Thomas's Profile - Muck Rack Explore Diana Brooks's 295 photos on Flickr! It would be transphobic to deny my legally female gender, she writes, but she claims trans activists insist that all a person should have to do to change sex is wake up one morning, say, Im a woman, or, Im a man, as if anyone actually does that. She hosts The Green Dream podcast on all things sustainable. 'Call me Diana': Our columnist David Thomas reveals her new - Telegraph Diana Willow Penrose Thomas formerly known as David William Penrose Thomas is gyrating her body to the soundtrack of her youth in the London studio where she is making her modelling debut. She writes of her delight at a few words exchanged with other walkers in the country, which she thinks indicate her being treated as a woman. Change). Her life of achievement is mostly behind her. But suppose I had been at an NHS hospital: should I have been on a male or female ward? "A friend of mine on the program came to me and said, 'Our graphics artist, Matt Wiessler, has told me that Martin ordered him to forge two bank statements,'" says Mangold. Although the process of having that is so gruesome that it is testing my willingness to go forward, particularly as I will soon be 62. I didnt want to be a Davina or a Dora and I am absolutely not a Daisy, so its Diana, which has five letters like David, she says as she changes outfits, pushing her feet into a pair of embroidered slippers that are, she declares with a selfdeprecating smile, a little too large for her size 10 feet. I wanted to be a husband and father. I am going to finish in an accident helicopter, plane or car crash. A couple were coming the other way. Oh, I always thought this track was right up my street, she exclaims to the photographer as she mouths the lyrics to the song, Youve got your mother in a whirl/ Shes not sure if youre a boy or a girl. Bowie was hugely influential to me; the idea that you had some choice over who you could become was a huge, huge thing. When search suggestions are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. During his investigation, Williams-Thomas meets with other close friends and associates of Princess Diana, who describe a kind, strong-minded and thoughtful person. Thats imaginary. How could you not know? and he said, Yes, but you always had girlfriends. And of course that was true and looking back it had me fooled as well. Are there, I nervously ask, now boyfriends in Dianas life? I'm a fierce defender of the rights of transwomen, and a doughty opponent of anti-trans prejudice. Thomas' mother is the Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Thomas of Walliswood. She was previously an assistant professor of economics at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business . Amazon.com: Thomas Diana: books, biography, latest update '", 'I am going to [die] in an accident helicopter, plane or car crash'. In 1989, she became the youngest ever editor of Punch magazine, a role she kept for three years. Thats difficult, some things have come in under budget, but I reckon it must be over 50,000. Is she worth it? Box 500 Station A Toronto, ON Canada, M5W 1E6. I am not faking this. Why does she say trans militants are stoking intolerance? Others are quite happy going some of the way, stopping and thinking: 'Yes, this is far enough.'. I dont think thats a matter of public institutions, so terrified of defying the latest woke diktats that they have entirely lost the faintest vestige of common sense. Even the most difficult and delicate part of her ongoing road to full transition is something she is ridiculously upbeat about. What a difference a year makes: when our columnist David Thomas started his transgender diary last March, little did he anticipate the ups, downs and expense of what it was going to take to become a woman. Diana Thomas's Profile | Daily Mail, Nature, The Telegraph Journalist Perhaps our response is a sort of metaphor for the limitations that are placed upon male behavior as a whole. [4] Her father was a British diplomat,[5] David Churchill Thomas. It is unfair that her huge build gets her read, but life is unfair and that huge build has been an advantage to her. office at satirical as journalists, we would frequently find ourselves writing on opposite . His only concern was my well-being and the fact that he had had no idea, and he wished he had known. Her close friend Roberto Devorik says that Diana always believed she was going to die young. I was filled with shame, self-disgust, bursting with pent-up anger and unhappiness. Those who cant are portrayed as terrifying, big, hairy, Desperate-Dan-in-a-frock trannies when the truth is theyre just poor. I am not pretending I am not still him in many ways. I have this opportunity late in middle age when a lot of people are feeling a sense of, Oh my God is this it? and maybe thinking that they were never quite the person they wanted to be. where he was editor Diana Thomas | Mercatus Center Tina Turner in Will the Therapeutic Products Bill prevent you from growing lemons and purchasing cinnamon? With any luck, that should be possible within the next six months. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. I mean look at me long legs, brand-new breasts, knows the offside rule and the LBW rule, and can tell a googly from a flipper and if you want to watch endless documentaries about World War II be my guest! Enter your email address to receive every post by email. But it does embody a dilemma at the heart of a trans person's life. Ironically, its often the ones who regard themselves as liberal that are the most hurtful and condescending. I would much rather defeat ignorance and transphobia with persuasive argument. Internalized transphobia is also relative, but projecting it onto others is not part of ones privilege. Some of the faff , she concedes, has been both painful and costly. My two sisters think of me (and, I suspect, prefer me) as their big sis, rather than big bro. But Henri, in my opinion, has nothing to do with this case," Garrec says. The vast majority of people I meet are incredibly kind and positive towards me. In September 2019, Penguin Press published Thomas's third book, Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes,[6] an investigation into the damage wrought by the colossal clothing industry and the grassroots, high-tech, international movement fighting to reform it. Personally, I try to define myself in ways that make sense, to me or any other reasonable person. But did no one stop for a second to consider how bog-standard natal females, who account for 99.9 per cent of all births, and regard motherhood as the most profoundly female of all experiences, might feel? And I absolutely dont deny the guy in me. Diana Thomas is a privileged trans woman, even though thats normally a contradiction in terms. Diana, Princess of Wales, pours her heart out to BBC journalist Martin Bashir in 1995. . We all deserve better. The procedure carried out on Monday was called a HoLEP. She was referring to her husband Prince Charles ' affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, who he would go on to marry in 2005, eight years after Diana's death in a car crash in August 1997.