ABSTRACT
On the weekend of 15-17 March 1974, Leeds hosted the UK's first ever national conference on trans issues. The reception, attended by 52 conference delegates and their friends or relatives, temporarily transformed the hotel's first floor into a queer space. The conference which followed the reception is also a significant milestone in the history of queer people as autonomous subjects, rather than objects, of academic investigation. 'Transvestism and Transsexualism in Modern Society' - the brainchild of University of Leeds trans postgraduate student Caroline Robertson, a self-proclaimed 'radical feminist' - discussed topics including the psychology and causes of trans identities, trans people and the family, trans people's 'legal and social status' and medical transition; and took the form of not only speeches by experts, but working groups made up of the ordinary trans people who attended.
