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Dillon, Michael

Dr. Laurence Michael Dillon (1915–1962) was an ordained Tibetan Buddhist monk (getsul), a surgeon in the British Merchant Navy, and the first man assigned female at birth to transition with hormones, top surgery, and a phalloplasty. Dillon, who was also known by his Theravadan and Tibetan names, Sramanera/Lobzang Jivaka, wrote the first text that advocated for clinicians to allow trans people to medically transition, Self: A Study in Ethics and Endocrinology (1946). Dillon’s life and work are significant to the field of trans studies not only for his historically significant medical and social transition and his writings on the subject but also for his standing as a transnational religious figure. Dillon published prolifically on Buddhist topics, and his memoir Out of the Ordinary: A Life of Gender and Spiritual Transitions (2016) was heavily influenced by Buddhist concepts. This entry traces Dillon’s life and work, conveying the significance of his complex positionality to the emergence of a medical and legal trans subjectivity, legacies of British imperialism, and the role of religion in trans identity.

Early Life and Transition

Born in Ladbroke Grove in London, England, in 1915, Michael Dillon was assigned female at birth and, along with his older brother Robert (Bobby), was raised by his maiden aunts. The Dillon family held a patrilineal aristocratic title, the baronetcy of Lismullen, and after his father Robert Dillon passed away when Michael was 10, Bobby became the new heir. During his formative years, Dillon also struck up a lifelong friendship with the town vicar, who encouraged him to pursue theology at Oxford, which he did initially but later switched to classics.

Dillon’s college years were marked by increasing uneasiness with his gender and sexuality. Rowing on the women’s team at St. Anne’s College, Dillon managed to change the dress policy to allow for the crew to wear pants, but he refused to respond to friends who thought he was “probably homosexual.” Following his time at Oxford, Dillon went to work as an auto mechanic in the town of Bristol and, in 1939, began taking testosterone tablets, which he obtained from a local psychiatrist to alleviate his gender discomfort.

Self, Surgery, and Surgeon

Dillon registered as male after undergoing top surgery from a sympathetic plastic surgeon in 1942. During this time, he also began studying at Trinity College, Dublin, to become a surgeon himself and wrote Self: A Study in Ethics and Endocrinology, the first text to advocate for the medical community to allow for people to transition. Self reflects themes that would return in Dillon’s later writing: urging society to accept trans people, while not disclosing autobiographical details of his own transition and gender history. The 1946 text also argued for the innate naturalness of transsexuality and homosexuality, making it one of the first works to do so. While he was a medical student, Dillon completed his own medical transition, obtaining a phalloplasty from Harold Gillies in London, which made him the first man assigned female at birth to undergo the procedure. Gillies had developed the “suitcase handle” pedicle flap technique that he used on Dillon for male veterans with disfigured genitals from World War I and II injuries.

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