Click here for POLICE STRIVE TO RESPECT & SERVE TRANNIES BETTER New 15-10-01
Click here for RACHEL'S 'KARIBOARD' AT WAYOUT New 27-7-01
Click here for APRIL ASHLEY CONGRATULATES WAYOUT updated 8-5-01

The WayOut Girls were sworn to secrecy while they rehearsed with Geri Halliwell at Londons Astoria for the big night at G.A.Y night club on 27th October. The year 2001 Spice Girls team was headed as always by; Steffan plus house of drag girls; Rossita (sporty), Vanilla (baby), Jean-michelle (scary) and WayOut's own miss Sarah Lloyd (snooty). This was the first time since the break up that Gerri has performed the Spice Girls material and we are very proud that she shared th opportunity with OUR Spice Girls. The appearance of the WayOut Spice Girls with Geri grabbed the attention of the UK's tabloids. Large pictures filled the front page of the Daily Express, The Sun, The Mirror, Daily Sport, and the Daily Record. Geri could not have asked for more publicity from such a stunt. The power of drag to grab a headline never fails.

30-9-06 update - 5 years after reporting this story with a scan of the article in the SUN newspaper - News International on behalf of the SUN Newspaper requested that me remove a scan of the article that we had been showing you in this position of our web site. Of course we complied immediatly. SO remember when YOU pick up a discarded copy of the SUN Newspaper in your local Cafe you are stealing from News International you bad people. But at the same time remember News international, if it was not for people like us you would not have anything to take pictures of or to report.

POLICE FORCES WANT TO UNDERSTAND AND SERVE TRANNIES BETTER New 15-10-01

I received this email recently
Hi Vicky Lee
A rugby team mate of mine is a Sergeant in the police, and he is helping to organise a forum for gay, lesbian, bisexuals and transgendered people in the Lambeth area, so that they may discuss relevant issues with the police. I have send a copy of an email which gives more details. Could you please pass it round any interested parties
Mandy
I will show you the email below it is an excellent example of the direction that police forces are taking to better serve trannies.

But first I am taking this opportunity to inform my readership of MY involvement in the Metropolitan Police Service LGBT- AG (that is the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Awareness Group). This group meets at New Scotland Yard and is motivated and funded by the Police. The group is working to help the police formulate and implement London wide policy and training that will enable the police in all 32 boroughs to better understand, respect and serve the LGBT comity (that is All Lesbian Gay and Bisexual people AND you and me the tranny community).

Now I know what many of you are thinking - You may not be gay or lesbian or bisexual and in general you may think the general LGB community themselves can be pretty hostile to trannies as THEY struggle to understand us as much as many others.
BUT Please be sure that the highest levels of the Metropolitan Police (and many other Police forces nationwide and internationally) have a strong desire to better understand trannies and treat them with respect. They intend this to be the case at all levels of the police force who may find need to interface with you whether you are full time or part time - transsexual or closet cross-dresser - while driving ‘dressed’ to a night out or caught up in an incident while shopping ‘dressed’ or in a domestic with your partner or “on the game” etc.

So whether you feel part of the LGBT community or not - please understand that there are trannies and gays and lesbians working with the police to give you a better deal and more respect. In my group at New Scotland Yard there are at least 5 of us that represent the ‘T’ in LGBT in a committee of some 20 wonderful people.

I encourage you to let me know what experiences you have with the police (especially in London). And encourage you to seek out your local borough forums and get involved. In the new edition of The Tranny Guide you will see a significant update to the section ‘Trannies and The Law’ which will explain how things have improved, the LGBT Police Liaison officers that are available to you and the policies that the police are implementing with regard to trannies. Watch this space too.

RACHEL LAUNCHES 'THE KARIBOARD' AT WAYOUT
Rachel wrote after trying her new instrument The Kariboard in our Star Search contest. "Thank you for last Saturday 30th June letting me launch my new instrument The Kariboard. I would love to have another opportunity to play music with the instrument". See my web site for technical information www.green-light.demon.co.uk
Check it out Rachel developed the instrument herself.
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APRIL ASHLEY CONGRATULATES WAYOUT
Miss April Ashley, long resident on America's West Coast is touring Manhatten New York, the French Riviera and London during the next few months. She plans to visit The WayOut Club and has written to us to express “a keen interest in the positive role that WayOut has played in the support of the transgender community”. Born a boy in 1935 growing up in a hard war torn Liverpool, Miss Ashley rose through Paris’s ‘Le Carrousel’ in it’s heyday where she started the transition to become one of the 60’s queens of the catwalk - Vogue's favorite underwear model photographed by Terence Donovan and David Bailey. She was personal friends of Dali, Einstien, Amanda Lear, Peter O’Toole. She appeared in the film ‘Road to Hong Kong’ with Bob Hope, Bing Crosby alongside Joan Collins. Miss Ashley married Lord Rowallan - an ill fated union that led to public scandal. More recently she has amongst her "normal, heterosexual relationships" was a brief affair, in the early eighties, with the late singer, Michael Hutchence. On her visit to London she will be promoting her biography ‘April Ashley’s Odessey’. April is currently working on several ITV documentaries and a new American release of her biography. She is currently a 'web hostess' at , www.image100.com a web-based, royalty-free picture agency. April will have her official web site launch in New York during spring 2001 and in London during winter 2001 when she will also see the first ever exhibition of her drawings and designs. It appears that the world will be hearing a lot from Miss Ashley and we hope she will find The WayOut Club the spiritual home here in London. Read much more about her life and her love of art and books at www.april.ashley.com
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From the Discussion Forum on Miss Ashleys site
" As an American visiting a British Trannie/Drag club for the first time I was naturally apprehensive - especially with the Wayout Club's east London address. Images passed my mind of either being hit on by Cray Brother clones or sitting next to a stoggy Brit Drag queen resembling the Queen Mother. What I found was a spot that is both refreshing in Edgy. The Wayout Club reminds me of the American Drag clubs of the 1980's. There was an ecletic mix of middle age transvestites, over-the-top effeminite teen queens, exotic Asians and average gays and lesbians. It was a refreshing change from the business like Manhattan trannie bars soley populated by fashion-model caliber Brazilians and gorgeous Asian working girls. At the Wayout Club, many of the British queens described to me how the spectar of fag-bashing still exists on the London streets. Few could leave the premises dressed without fear of violence. In my 2 hour stay I saw a dozen men clandestinely arrive only to transform in the bathrooms into ladies. In a sad way I think the Wayout Club gets it enery from the still closeted nature of the British transgendered. In America drag has become passe - even mayor of New York does it - we are able to externalize it much easier. In the UK it seems so much more bottledup and repressed. Saturday Night at the Wayout Club, therefore, is the powerful explosion some their innerselves"
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