Louise Worsfold is an extremely accomplished member of the New Scotland Yard Metropolitan Police Force. Of the 33,000 members of the Metropolitan police only 3,500 officers are authorized to carry firearms; Louise is not only one of this 9.4% but she also leads security operations at Heathrow International Airport, one of the busiest airports in the world.
One would think that these accomplishments alone would be outstanding for a female officer, however these career advancements and accomplishments would come after Louise made the decision to transition from male to female while working on the force.
With new protective legislation coming into play in 1999, Louise approached her supervisor to explain her intention to transition. The months and years that followed would provide obstacles from the medical community and the government in regards to changing sex. More challenging however were scrutiny from the public eye, and being taken seriously on the job.
The British press has a terrible reputation for a complete lack of regard for human decency and privacy when following a story. When discussing the lives and challenges of transsexuals, frequently their ignorance is most prevalent in the coverage provided to the public. Everything from the medical and psychological causes of the condition to the process of transitioning is written using uninformed sources, or no sources at all. There is marked lack of sensitivity and increased degree of sensationalism when it comes to stories surrounding any kind of gender variance.
This certainly didn’t help Worsfold. In fact she experienced firsthand how frustrating and invasive this constant hounding, picture taking, and disrespectful coverage can be. It’s more than any Trans person going through an already difficult stage in their lives needs to endure. At one point the press actually published her street address which lead to damage and tampering with her car (she would go through two vehicles due to tampering in as many years), attempted break ins and three separate physical attacks on her driveway, each of which landed her in the hospital; all of this taking place while Louise was still serving as a police officer.
Mixed reaction from within the police force taught Worsfold that first and foremost there is a sore lack of training surrounding these issues within most forces worldwide. Clearly not one to back down, Louise moved to assist with creating policy with other police forces in Europe about how to handle transitioning officers and staff. She also makes the effort to educate forces in Europe and North America about Trans issues and challenges, and is also a founding members of the board of the National Transgendered Police Association.
I was lucky enough to attend a presentation given while Louise was in Calgary, organized by Lynn MacDonald the current GLBT police liaison. It was an opportunity for the Calgary Police Service to benefit from this fellow officer’s unique experience.
Louise presents herself as strong, well educated, and extremely comfortable with sharing her story to benefit and enlighten those who get the opportunity to hear her. She has a good sense of humour, which is essential to anyone who spends so much time talking about a struggle that is so personal. It was an invaluable presentation to those in attendance, giving a lot of influential people within the department and idea of how to better handle that same situation within their own force.
Being trans myself, it was truly incredible to see such an accomplished young woman making such a difference on a large scale. There is hope when people like Louise Worsfold (not to mention Chaz Bono, Andrea James, and Dr. Camille Cabral) step up to the plate and make trans issues know to a world that is still in the dark about our day to day struggle toward finding peace within ourselves.
