‘They arrested me’: Australia’s first legally recognised trans woman on a life in the spotlight

Australia’s first legally recognised transgender woman has shared what led her to fight to have her birth certificate changes.

When you read Estelle Asmodelle’s resume, it’s hard to believe it was all achieved by one person: from creative professions like artist, actor and dancer, to scientific endeavours like becoming a qualified physicist. All while becoming Australia’s first legally recognised trans women, back in the 80s when the word “transgender” didn’t exist yet.

In the lead-up to International Women’s Day, Asmodelle has joined 100 women in sharing with news.com.au the obstacles they’ve had to overcome, revealing the challenges she faced started at university.

She began taking hormones to begin her transition in 1981 when she was completing degrees in theoretical physics and mathematics.

“I started looking a little strange — once you start hormones people notice that something’s going on, if they don’t know what it is. I mean, you’re growing breasts,” she told news.com.au.

“So the physics department pretty much told me I’d better not come back to class until I was looking like everyone else.”

Considering there were no female student in physics at the time, it was a clear sign that they wanted Asmodelle to look like a boy, or leave.

“They basically threw me out of lectures,” she said. “They told me I wasn’t welcome here. I continued for a little while, sitting in a corridor listening to a lecture. But then I left, well, I was basically kicked out.”

‘I’m seeing a lot of arrogance by people who don’t actually understand what trans kids are going through’ – Estelle Asmodelle. Picture: Supplied

“I told the university about this, but they didn’t do anything about it, until making a semi-official apology about eight years ago.

“That’s pretty much where the discrimination started, at university.

“It was a tough time for me, because I didn’t know anybody like me and it was hard enough going through the (sex change) process without the university giving me a hard time.”

Luckily, her family stood by her.

“My family was very supportive,” she said. “My Mum, when I told her, cried and grabbed me and held me and said ‘you’re just my daughter and you’ll always be and that’s it’. From day one she was just amazing.

“I know a lot of people haven’t had such an easy time of it, and I feel blessed because I did.”

Outside of her family, she recalls being surprised by the attitudes of people she knew and considered conservative or progressive.

“Surprisingly, the people you wouldn’t expect to be the most accepting are, and the ones that you thought were very open-minded and trendy were actually the least receptive to change. I always found that interesting.

“I leant a lot from people’s reactions towards my changing — it really made me embrace everyday people.”

To find a more friendly space, Asmodelle started going to dance classes and gave up academia in favour of dance with the support of her family— a move that would introduce her to a whole new career. But not one that wasn’t without its own discrimination.

“The discrimination from day one as a dancer was very tough — I missed out on a lot of really good jobs,” she recalls.

“Half the time it would be ‘you’re not a female, we don’t want you’. I’d go for an audition and sometimes they wouldn’t even know, but when they’d find out it was like ‘you’re out of here’.”

‘I’m so tenacious and I don’t believe in ‘you can’t do something’’ – Estelle Asmodelle. Picture: Supplied.

Not that she let the rejection stop her. Describing herself as “tenacious”, Asmodelle said she used it as motivation to achieve her dreams.

“I was always more determined to do those things, because I was told you can’t. I’m still like that now”.

It paid off. Asmodelle was picked to be in a travelling female cabaret show, called Paris By Night.

“They knew I was a pre-operative transsexual but they didn’t see a problem with that,” she said.

The show was to tour Asia, with the first stop in Singapore. Despite it being a scary time to be transgender in that country — Asmodelle recalls that transgender people “were beaten in the street by authorities” — she was assured by show organisers that she would be fine,

but hey were wrong.

“When we got to the airport I had a male passport so they arrested me … for being a transsexual,” she remembers.

“I was placed under house arrest during the entire time the show was in Singapore, I was allowed to perform.

“I was accompanied by two police officers. At first they were really nasty and really abusive and I was concerned about my safety, but over time they seemed to come around a little bit.”

Becoming Australia’s first legally recognised trans woman

The incident was one of the motivating forces for Asmodelle to have her birth certificate changed, as she was still legally referred to as a man.

“I always identified as a female, even at a very young age … to go through all this very painful surgery and still have to have a male passport, and a male birth certificate, and a male name, was just too much for me,” she said.

She decided to take matters into her own hands by starting a “barrage of letter writing” to the NSW Attorney-General.

“I wrote a letter literally every single day, and this went on for a year. My partner at the time thought that I was insane.

“I didn’t get a single response, until one day in October of ‘96 — more than a year after I’d had my gender change — the secretary to the Attorney-General of NSW called me personally and said ‘Estelle, we’ve finally decided to do something about it. We’re inviting you to go to the Department of Births, Deaths and Marriages to have the first amended birth certificate in your female name’.

“I thought it was a joke actually, it was quite surreal, but I was ecstatic.”

Estelle worked as a model around the world, including four years in Japan, during which time she was also acted. Picture: Supplied.

But having her own documents amended wasn’t enough.

Asmodelle wanted to share her story to educate people about transgender people, so she took to the media.

“There wasn’t a lot of talking about what it was like having to change your body to have to match your inner psyche,” she said.

“Normal people are great with things, as long as they’re educated. So I did a lot of media to educate people”.

Which is how she became the first trans pin-up girl.

During her media campaign, her then boyfriend was a photographer. They were taking pictures all the time and Asmodelle says it was him who suggested taking them to a men’s magazine.

“He went to Playboy, who (said they wouldn’t) have men in the magazine. (My boyfriend) said ‘look this is a great opportunity, you should think about how many magazines you’re going to sell if this goes public’, but they still said no,” she said.

“So we went to Australian Playgirl, which was not very well known, but it was still a magazine for men. They said it was a great idea.”

“I thought it was a good idea from a political point of view, because it gave my cause notoriety and attention. Even though they were nude photos I wasn’t particularly worried about it, I wasn’t a prude”.

These days, she’s not so in the public eye, but she’s never stopped creating.

After a short stint as a physics teacher, Asmodelle is doing her own thing. That includes writing two novels, another screen play and making a living from her artwork (which you can find here).

“I get a lot of commissions and it’s just been so hectic — I thought with Covid people would stop buying things, but actually it’s been the opposite for me. I’ve never sold so much art.”

These days, Estelle makes a living from her art. Picture: Supplied.

It’s almost impossible to believe one person achieved so many things, especially considering the struggle for trans rights.

“It’s not an easy thing to go from one gender to another,” explains Asmodelle.

“But I’ve always been passionate.

“A lot of people worry if they’re good enough, I don’t have that mental policing — if I love something, I just do it.”

Originally published as ‘They arrested me’: Australia’s first legally recognised trans woman on a life in the spotlight