“It just felt completely natural to me that as long as there were gender roles there would be people who transcended them.” Juliet Jacques.

In today’s episode British Library curator Polly Russell is joined by writer and filmmaker Juliet to explore how transgender lives have been represented in the press, in law and in culture throughout the ages. Because for transgender women in the UK and around the world, there is no finished business. Whether it’s access to healthcare, high suicide rates or being faced with violence on the streets, the issues trans people face are far from sorted. So Polly and Juliet are learning about queer stories from the from 20th Century with academic Alison Oram, getting inspired by political activist Christine Burns MBE and chatting to writer Kuchenga about how things stand today.

Please note this episode contains explicit language and conversations about suicide.

A Pixiu production.