Racing driver Roberta Cowell’s story celebrated in new Trans+ History Week workbook
The late Roberta Cowell was a trailblazing trans woman whose motorsport career merits wider recognition; now Trans+ History Week is helping to share her story, through a new educational workbook launched in advance of the annual activation to be held from 5 to 11 May 2025…
The remarkable life story of racing driver Roberta Cowell is being brought to new audiences via a workbook project launched in support of Trans+ History Week.
The workbook is designed to spotlight and celebrate overlooked Trans+ history. Cowell, who died in 2011 at the age of 93, was not only the first known British woman to undergo gender-affirming surgery but was also hugely accomplished and respected in motorsport.
Her story is one of several shared in the workbook, which has been developed through 80+ hours of research led by writer and academic Gray Burke-Stowe.
Free to download now from the QueerAF website, it showcases powerful lessons from history while challenging harmful narratives about the Trans+ community in politics, media, and society.
As part of Trans+ History Week’s broader mission, the workbook helps reclaim the millennia-old history of transgender, non-binary, gender-diverse, and intersex people.
With trans+ rights under attack – marked by a 503% rise in LGBT hate crimes in the UK since 2011 and a 72% increase in suicide attempts among trans minors in the US – this initiative is more urgent than ever.
Last year alone, at least 350 trans+ people were murdered globally in what TGEU calls a “significant increase.”
To refute the harmful narratives, Trans+ History Week has partnered with award-winning independent publisher QueerAF to produce the workbook as well as pay and mentor four Trans+ writers – Adam Khan (they/them), Ella Osho (she/her), William Elisabeth Cuthbert (they/he), and Sabah Choudrey (they/he) – to research and tell these stories.
Their work brings lived experience and historical depth to four key lessons…
- Lesson 1: “We’ve always been here”: The Māhū people have always held an honoured space in Hawai’ian and Tahitian culture
- Lesson 2: “We can’t be erased”: Ballroom is more than a location or an event – it’s an identity that strengthens those who find their home there
- Lesson 3: “We’re stronger together”: Lynn Conway revolutionised the technology that brings us all together on the internet. She was also responsible for fortifying bonds within our community
- Lesson 4: “We’re more than Trans+”: Roberta Cowell was an RAF pilot who survived a Nazi prisoner of war camp and used her platform as a motorsport driver to progress Trans+ rights
The section about Cowell also includes a profile of Charlie Martin, who is similarly blazing a trail in motorsport today as an out trans woman.
Martin is a Driver Ambassador for Racing Pride, the LGBTQ+ inclusion member community which has partnerships with several F1 teams.
Marty Davies (she/they), the founder of Trans+ History Week CIC, said: “The workbook is the most important artefact we produce each year.
“In place of a theme, we have four lessons that we illuminate each year with fresh stories from our history.
“We’re releasing it ahead of Trans+ History Week to inspire the world to mark the week in their own way, using these four stories as an easy and robust guide to do just that.
“It’s never been more important to share the truth that ‘we’ve always been here and always will be’ to dismantle the modern myth that we’re new. We’re not, we are as old as time.
“Getting geeky about history helps us in our fight against efforts to delegitimise and erase us. Trans+ people are as enduring as the sun in the sky and the earth beneath our feet.
“So let’s make sure our history reaches politicians that are persecuting us and our Trans+ youth who may be feeling hopeless and alone with a message that they belong.”
Jamie Wareham (he/him), the founder of QueerAF CIC, said: “There are few silver bullets in doing stories justice and getting media representation right, but investing in talent from the communities you are creating content about gets pretty close.
“There is a vast lack of representation of Trans+ people in the media, but what we see every week at QueerAF is how vast the talent pools are of creative talent in the Trans+ community.
“The creatives who we mentored to produce this workbook, brought a unique perspective that we couldn’t have got from anywhere else, and that’s what makes the history lessons contained within so rich.
“And ultimately, they all hammer home our timeless message: We’ve always been here, and always will be.”
Last year, the Workbook inspired organisations like Warner Bros. Discovery, Hackney Museum, and Proud Studios to host events celebrating Trans+ history.
With this new edition, Trans+ History Week aims to empower even more people to reclaim and share their own stories.
For more information and to download the Workbook, visit wearequeeraf.com/dotheworkbook.
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