Trans woman Catherine McGregor on the gender talk that made cricket legend ‘squirm’

Trans woman Catherine McGregor has opened up on the conversation that left an Australian cricket legend squirming.

Catherine McGregor has detailed what she found to be a humorous moment with one of Australia’s top cricketing greats about her transition from male to female.

McGregor’s remarkable story has been well documented over the years and was the subject of critically acclaimed Sydney Theatre Company production, Still Point Turning: The Catherine McGregor Story, starring Heather Mitchell.

“Greg Chappell asked me once, we were at a cricket fundraising lunch once and he said, ‘I don’t meant to be rude but have you still got the tackle?” McGregor recalled in the latest episode of the Mental As Anyone podcast.

“And I went, no, no, I had an operation and he was literally squirming in his chair. I was watching, and it was very amusing to see these guys kind of crossing the legs and hunkering down.

Catherine McGregor speaking at the National Press Gallery in Canberra.

Cricket legend Greg Chappell. Picture: AAP Image/Dean Lewins

McGregor, 68, transitioned 12 years ago and underwent gender reassignment surgery in 2017.

She suffered decades of excruciating gender dysphoria, which an eminent psychiatrist first diagnosed back in the 1980s. Her decision to transition came in 2012 after a serious mental health episode that led to a near attempt to take her own life.

“I gingerly decided that I would try to express the gender that I was feeling and in the end, that took its course into living in this role,” she explained.

“It is the reason that … I’ve generated controversy and rage, is that I said it even in the narrative of the play that was dedicated to my life, I made it clear that I don’t consider myself a woman.”

McGregor however struggles with the amount of hate and politicalisation currently levelled at the transgender community here and abroad.

Catherine McGregor and actress Heather Mitchell. Mitchell played McGregor in the Still Point Turning show. Picture: Renee Vaile

“In this debate at the moment, regardless of the ideology around it, there are young kids in transition, there are young people feeling their way, people grappling with all kinds of issues about their identity,” she told the podcast.

“Constantly being battered in this public debate doesn’t help them, and I do wish we could all get to higher ground. You only find common ground by moving to higher ground and I think we’re in a sewer at the moment, and it’s just very distressing, and I hate seeing the tone it’s taking.”

Mostly, McGregor does not engage with haters and avoids online trolls.

Catherin McGregor with Lucy and Malcolm Turnbull.

Catherine McGregor as Lieutenant Colonel Malcolm McGregor prior to her transition in 2012.

She understands some people will “misgender” her “from time to time”.

“I’ve got a very deep voice,” she said.

“People are not being deliberately mean to me, it just happens.”

Deliberate misgendering can hurt though, she added.

“I don’t get intentionally misgendered in public spaces as much these days, or it hasn’t for a long time. It hurts, I must say when it does happen. It is a bit of a wound.”

* A new episode of Mental As Anyone drops each Tuesday morning.