He died a virgin.
Perhaps because it was the repressive 1950’s or that safety was of larger concern, Michael Dillon wrote narrowly of his sexual desire. It is, however, documented that Dillon died at the age of 47 without ever having experienced the union of two bodies; not as a woman with a man or as a woman with another woman nor as a man with a woman.
Michael Dillon Was Born A Biological Female
Michael Dillon was born a biological female; Laura Dillon in Folkestone, England in the year 1915. Dillon is, in fact, history's first post-operative female-to-male transsexual. In layman's terms, Dillon was the first person born with female genitalia to undergo reconstructive surgeries to make his outside parts match that which he felt most closely resembled how he felt on the inside- albeit those of a man.
Dillon- perhaps most bravely- parted with all that he felt close to and protected by in exchange for the one thing he was most certain of- that he was a man and would be willing to do anything and everything in his power to live as one.
Dillon Endured Multiple Surgeries To Change Sexes
Multiple, excruciating surgeries that yielded countless infections, long hospital stays cohabiting with his country's indigent and mentally ill, and the sometimes life-threatening scrutiny of those around him, Dillon stayed the course and saw his transition through. Seventeen operations later, Dillon had a working penis that could help him pass in bathrooms and locker rooms; one that would protect him in many cases from being "outed." Dillon endured a complete excommunication from anyone and everyone he held close throughout his life. The aunts who raised him pushed him out when he learned of his desire to live as a male; his brother refused to acknowledge his existence.
The one woman he came to trust and love abandoned him once his assistance was no longer needed (she was a male-to-female transsexual who sought his support regarding her transition). The entire country of Ireland, in fact, where he had carved out his educational path and the beginnings of his true identity, seemingly turned on him and he felt forced into exile. Once his biological identity had been discovered in Dublin where he had studied medicine, he fled the one place where he had truly felt felt safe and spent the rest of his life not truly a citizen of anywhere and in constant- potentially debilitating- worry about the unburying of his full history.
Dillon Became A Buddhist
Dillon ran to India and then to Tibet to seek refuge in the Buddhist monasteries that he assumed would be more accepting and more enlightened than the Western judges of gender that he faced his entire life. But alas, the East did not greet him with the open arms he had hoped for and, although they allowed him to live and eat and pray with them, they denied him access to full ordination as a monk because they did not recognize him as a man. He died while trying to return to a Tibetan sangha that he hoped would change their mind about his ordination.
Dillon Created A New Field of Study
To his credit, Dillon essentially- and almost single-handedly- created a field of study where previously none had existed. Not only did he transition and effectively pass as a male, but he also wrote a book about the transsexual identity- albeit, couched in an otherwise ennui-evocative analysis of the endocrine system to hide the controversial content- in addition to studying medicine, and contributing to the world a wealth of knowledge and a personal tale of bravery that makes it tangibly easier for young transgender folks today to seek help to fully become themselves.
Dillon Helped Change The Binary Gender System
The relative ease in which one can pick and purchase clothing in the opposite gendered department is due in large part to the groundwork that Dillon laid decades before. Dillon may have even lived long enough to reap some of the benefits that his own life's work laid the track work for. He was "outed" while working aboard a ship (news crews showed up attempting to interview him) and the reports did not travel like wildfire as they had in the past and as Dillon feared and expected they might. Also, much to Dillon's relief, his comrades on the ship relayed that they didn't care who he was. It was just the same to them whether he had been born with male or female parts.
This information was gleaned from the only real published information on Dillon, The First Man-Made Man, by Pagan Kennedy.
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