Grant, Julia

Grant was born George Roberts, the eldest of eight children. His mother was an alcoholic and his father a fisherman who was seldom home. From about the age of 12 he looked after his brothers and sisters instead of attending school. To help put food on the family table he sometimes prostituted himself to pedophiles. The children were all put into care and George also spent time in reform school (borstal) and prison.

From the age of 15 or 16 he realized that he should have been born a girl, having previously thought he might be gay, and at the age of 24, while a catering manager in a London hospital, George Roberts began the process of becoming Julia Grant. Her progress has been followed from then until 1999 in a series of four British television BBC documentaries.

Her sex-change surgery failed after a few months and she has had financial and personal reverses, including bankruptcy and rejection by her father, but she is now a successful café and public house owner in Manchester and also runs a support group for transvestites and other transsexuals.

References

Dickson, E. Jane. "Stand by Your Man," Radio Times, 31 July-6 August 1999, pp. 30-31
Lacey, Hester. "'We Used to Be Brother and Sister. Now We're Women Together,'" Independent on Sunday [London], 1 August 1999. Real Life, p. 4
Grant, Julia. George and Julia. (1980)
Grant, Julia. Just Julia. (London: Boxtree, 1994)