The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes

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The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes: And the Unwritten History of the Trans Experience
ISBN
978-1-982139-46-9
Websitehttps://www.zoeplaydon.com/books/the-hidden-case-of-ewan-forbes

The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes: And the Unwritten History of the Trans Experience is a

nonfiction historical book written by Zoë Playdon and published by Scribner on 2 November 2021. A UK version of the book with the alternative subtitle The Transgender Trial that Threatened to Upend the British Establishment was published by Bloomsbury Publishing on 11 November 2021. The book discusses Sir Ewan Forbes, 11th Baronet and the 1968 Scottish legal case over his being transgender and the inheritance of his baronetcy. The impacts of his case, how the results were suppressed by the government due to the potential impact on inheritance across the country, and the subsequent English case involving a trans individual, Corbett v Corbett, that had a direct forced ignorance of the evidence are main focuses of the book.[1]

The rights were bought by production company Brazen Productions, who partnered with Synchronicity Films in 2021 to create a mini-series written by

Triangle Awards in the transgender category.[4]

Background and production

After Playdon co-founded the

transition and have their birth certificate changed to allow for inheritance, but that ended abruptly in 1970. It was through this investigation that Playdon became aware of Ewan Forbes and his legal history and subsequent cases to his that altered British law significantly for the trans community.[5]

Playdon found multiple difficulties in uncovering information regarding the Forbes trial, as details had been covered up by the Scottish government for five decades. A request to the

hereditary peers and trans cases regarding inheritance continued, Playdon decided to continue her research on the legal history and compile a book on the subject.[1]

Content

The book discusses the life history of aristocrat Ewan Forbes who was

male puberty with male secondary sex characteristics.[6] At that time in the 1930s, it was allowed for trans individuals to go through transition and then alter their birth certificates of their own accord, without requiring approval through a certificate as has become required through the Gender Recognition Act 2004. This was done by Forbes, who then was married to a woman, and became a general practitioner. But the issue of his transition became a legal problem after both his father and elder brother died, making him next in line of succession for the baronetcy.[7]

A cousin of the family contested the inheritance, however, leading to a Scottish court case in 1968 and his legal team had to deal with a problem in common understanding of the terminology that had changed recently.

testes from another individual to act as his own, resulting in him winning the case. This allowed for a legal precedent for trans individuals to win cases of primogeniture inheritance and became a threat to the aristocracy of the time, resulting in them silencing the results of the court decision so that it could not be used as a reference in subsequent trials.[1][9]

Corbett v Corbett, an English legal case in 1970 concerned April Ashley and her husband, Arthur Corbett. He tried to have an annulment of their marriage in order to not have to split their wealth in the divorce. Corbett argued that because Ashley was transgender, their marriage was not legal from the beginning, despite Ashley having fully transitioned and Corbett being aware of her trans background prior to their marriage. He argued based on her having not changed her birth certificate that the marriage was void. The trial judge forced the lawyers for the defence to not mention the two-years-prior Forbes precedent case and also made the doctors involved in the physical examination redo the medical inspection after they stated Ashley had a "perfectly usual vagina". They again reported that there was no exception to their inspection and the judge instead ruled in Corbett's favour despite the evidence, stating that Ashley was a "homosexual transvestite who's mentally ill". This resulted in the Corbett v Corbett trial serving as the precedent for later cases, with the Forbes trial continuing to be suppressed from public knowledge.[1]

Both the beginning and the end of the book also discuss other events going on prior to Forbes's case and more contemporarily involving trans rights, including the first 1931 gender transition done for

trans exclusionary radical feminists.[10]

Critical reception

gender spectrum "scientifically eccentric" and overall called the work a "campaigner's book".[14]

Rebekah Kati for the Library Journal concluded that the book was a "fascinating look into the changing landscape of trans rights in the United Kingdom" and recommended it for anyone who wants to know how trans rights have changed over time.[15] Writing in The Herald, reviewer Dani Garavelli lamented the lack of personal details about Forbes's opinion and stances on subjects due to never keeping private writings and wished that Playdon had characterized the conflict with Forbes's sister Margaret differently due to the issue of Margaret being the eldest sibling and a lesbian, making her unable to be the heir for the baronetcy and being unable to marry her partner. Garavelli concludes that the book's convincing argument came from "the ability to empathise with Forbes's suffering, much more than [Playdon's] proselytizing, that left me wondering why society makes it so difficult for trans people to be themselves."[16] Patrick Strudwick in the i newspaper referred to the book as "one of the most important pieces of investigative journalism ever written about trans people".[1] For The Times Literary Supplement, Christine Burns considered the book to successfully be a "complex story compellingly told" for its ability to fully consider all the aspects of Forbes's case and subsequent events.[5]

As a part of the

Female Masculinities and the Gender Wars.[17] Hugo Vickers as a reviewer for The Oldie complimented the ambitious nature of the book as a general trans history coverage of the past century interspersed with Forbes's life story, noting that he as a "general reader" would have gotten lost in the former without the latter to keep as a steady throughline of the book's historical plot.[18] Giving the book a 4 out of 5 rating in The Daily Telegraph, Tanya Gold commented on just how "typically British" it is that the topic of the trans experience in Britain would end up being about the complicated and "ever-fascinating prism" of the class system of the country.[19] Covering the book for The Law Society Gazette, Luke Williams pointed out that while the work may have a "limited relevance to day-to-day practice" for lawyers, the information regarding cases like Corbett v Corbett and their impact on the legal profession in the UK since is "invaluable" and those cases serve as a "timely reminder of what can happen" on a quote from the Forbes case judge discussed in the book that "there are some interests that it is more important to protect than the rights of individuals".[20]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Strudwick, Patrick (10 November 2021). "The secret court case 50 years ago that has robbed transgender people of their rights ever since". i. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
  2. ^ Ravindran, Manori (31 October 2021). "'Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes' Book, About Scottish Trans Pioneer, to Be Adapted by Synchronicity Films". Variety. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  3. ^ Chapman, Monica (1 February 2022). "2022 Barbara Gittings Literature Award and Israel Fishman Non-Fiction Award of the Stonewall Book Awards announced". ala.org. American Library Association. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  4. ^ "Bechdel, Hough, Peters among nominees for Triangle Awards". Associated Press. 21 March 2022. Retrieved 21 March 2022.
  5. ^ a b Burns, Christine (12 November 2021). "Silenced all these years: A landmark story of trans rights". The Times Literary Supplement. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  6. ^ O'Brien, John (6 January 2022). "Trans history and one man's struggle to correct 'a ghastly mistake'". KUOW-FM. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  7. ^ Merritt, Stephanie (26 December 2021). "The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes by Zoë Playdon review – a fascinating transgender life". The Observer. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
  8. ^ "The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes: And the History of the Trans Experience". Publishers Weekly. 14 October 2021. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  9. ^ Maier, John (December 2021). "A Question of Inheritance". Literary Review. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
  10. ^ Beale, Lewis (24 November 2021). "The Landmark Trans Case That Got Hushed Up for Decades". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  11. ^ "Book Reviews: The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes". Kirkus Reviews. 7 September 2021. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  12. ^ Schulman, Sarah (2 November 2021). "The Secret 53-Year-Old British Case That Could Have Legalized Trans Identity". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  13. ^ Patterson, Christina (30 October 2021). "The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes by Zoë Playdon review – the remarkable story of the lord and a secret transgender test case". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  14. ^ Ditum, Sarah (29 October 2021). "The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes by Zoë Playdon review – the secret case of the trans aristo". The Times. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  15. ^ Kati, Rebekah (November 2021). "Social Sciences: The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes". Library Journal. 146 (11): 92. Retrieved 26 November 2021 – via ProQuest.
  16. ^ Garavelli, Dani (13 November 2021). "The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes by Zoë Playdon, reviewed by Dani Garavelli". The Herald. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  17. ^ Rees, Yves (December 2021). "The pains of inheritance: A new trans history of modern Britain". Australian Book Review (438). Retrieved 2 December 2021.
  18. ISSN 0965-2507
    .
  19. ^ Gold, Tanya (4 December 2021). "The trans aristocrat – and the shameful 1960s legal cover-up". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 14 December 2021.
  20. ^ Williams, Luke (13 December 2021). "Groundbreaking trial that was expunged from the records". The Law Society Gazette. Retrieved 14 December 2021.

Further reading

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