Jonathon Moran
She wore her military uniform in a photograph for Qtopia Sydney, the largest centre of its kind for Queer history and culture in the world. Now, Catherine McGregor reveals her heartbreaking backstory about transitioning.
Catherine McGregor chose specifically to be photographed in her military uniform for Qtopia Sydney.
The Australian Defence Force Officer’s remarkable story of transitioning from Malcolm to Catherine at the age of 56 is part of an exhibit to feature in the centre that is the largest of its kind for Queer history and culture in the world.
“It’s the only place I have ever belonged, and that’s the truth,” McGregor said of her military service.
“I thought if this is for posterity, the nature of the discussions you are having is very much about identity and clearly queer LGBTI, gay, trans, queer, whatever label sums up someone’s life is meaningful.
“I’m really proud that I was an Australian soldier because it’s very hard to describe the bonds you form when you face great adversity and hardship together.”
McGregor, now 68, will join the likes of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and NSW Premier Chris Minns for the launch of Qtopia Sydney at the old Darlinghurst Police Station on Friday.
She is a prominent trans writer and commentator who underwent gender reassignment surgery in 2017.
Her life and story was the subject of the critically acclaimed Sydney Theatre Company production, Still Point Turning: The Catherine McGregor Story, starring Heather Mitchell.
McGregor, who was married to the “love of her life” for 12 years, returned to the military on an age extension as a Reservist in September last year.
January marked 50 years since McGregor joined the Royal Military College Duntroon in Canberra with her class meeting each year to read the names of those who have fallen and passed when they reunite.
“When I transitioned, I stopped engaging with my classmates and I was embarrassed and I didn’t know how some of them would react,” she explained.
“For the 45th anniversary, one of them wrote to me and said, ‘you’ve got to come back’. And I said, ‘I don’t want to’. And he said, ‘you owe it to us because we have a solemn pact that the last one standing will read all our names of the others who’ve passed’. And he said, ‘none of us know what the future holds, but you’re one of us and if you’re the last one standing, we need you to read our names’. And so I went back.”
McGregor recalls feeling “different” as a young child, as early as five. At eight, then Malcolm was caught trying on his mother’s clothes.
“The dysphoria has been abated. It is impossible to explain what dysphoria feels like, it is excruciating,” she said.
“You just don’t get a moment’s peace.”
Now, when McGregor looks in the mirror, she feels “right”.
“It feels right. I try to keep myself reasonably fit,” she said.
“That’s an occupational hazard of being a soldier. For someone 68, I’m still running and doing weight training.”
