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W11 in the 70s. Chapter 9: Rachel Pollack |
When I knew Rachel she was a transsexual. She was highly educated
and very politicised and she lived with her wife Edith just around
the corner from me in W11. They were both very supportive of each
other and both could be seen on the streets of west London in the
seventies. Rachel knew exactly what she stood for, and in a quiet
but determined and resolute way she withstood all opposition in
order to support the transgender position.
 At
demonstrations of Gay Liberation Front Rachel was always there as a
symbol for all transsexuals and for libertarianism. Rachel was a
very imaginative writer who in her writing explored different
aspects of a spatial dimension where the most extraordinary things
happened. One could see by Rachel’s writings that she thought it
possible to break down many barriers to disclose magical places not
yet discovered. In her life as well, the emphasis on the biological
criteria of woman was challenged, especially when Rachel and Edith
said they were lesbians. The gay community couldn’t understand this.
Although the Gay Movement supported gay feminine men, the whole
movement was encapsulated in the masculine ideal, and Rachel
supported the feminine which was quite opposite, but there was no
political voice for the transgender at that time and both Rachel and
Bobby insisted in their own way that the transgender would have a
place in the politics of the seventies. Mostly though Rachel as well
as Bobby were rejected by both gay men and the political lesbians of
the time. However, there were some people who did support her
position, and I am pleased to see that Aubrey Walter included
Rachel’s writings in the book Come Together. It was originally not
written for Come Together, though, but for Ink magazine, and of
course one must realise that when Rachel talks about heterosexuality
and being gay her horizons are much broader than the social
definitions of GLF as she is coming from the feminine position and
not the masculine. Rachel, Edith, Bobby, Bob Mellors, and I hope
myself, and many others as well all in different ways, helped to
politicise the transgender position in the seventies. In the eighties a more coherent form of transgender politics came about. I think that those from the seventies should be acknowledged for their part in this, for I think their stance paved the way for gender politics in the eighties, Now Rachel lives in New York State. She is a well known writer and an expert on tarot cards (www.rachelpollack.com). Edith was Rachel’s wife and she played her own part in women’s politics of the time. She defined herself as a lesbian transvestite feminist and supported women’s values. She also helped Rachel fulfil her goal as woman and they both ran awareness groups which explored gender and society. As a couple they were quite a political force. But Edith also had an independent life of her own. She was very active in Women’s Liberation Front and GLF politics. Being woman and supporting the true feminine, whether genetic woman or new woman, must surely be the way forward for evolutionary change for the better. London W11 in the 70s. 10. Bobby MacKenzie |
| Picture: a photo in which Rachel is the third from the left. |
| Contents Bobby and I. 1 How I found out. 1 |
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