In November last year, you and your good friend Nicholas Cheffings wrote a very powerful article for us, “Finding Gaynor”, about your experience with gender dysphoria and your transition. What was the response like?
If I start by saying what I expected it to be, I was somewhat nervous. We expected to receive abuse and offensive remarks. But what actually happened was beyond my greatest expectations. I received an enormous outpouring of support, both from the property industry and from other parts of the trans community, where the article was reproduced, and in the construction industry where it was also reproduced by Constructing Rainbows. It has unwittingly opened me up as being a role model, which I really didn’t expect, but I have embraced. I’ve been asked to speak by a number of large companies on diversity, equality and inclusion, and have had a number of people contacting me over their own same issues. For myself, mentally, it was an absolutely brilliant action to take. I decided to take it simply because, if I saved one person from self-harming or attempting suicide then I had won, notwithstanding any adverse reaction.
What is your message to the industry?
If employers make somebody feel themselves and be themselves, they become a far more valuable and constructive employee. Once I came out, suddenly I found this huge weight lifted off my shoulders. Two of my colleagues said something along the lines of, “You were the worst person to negotiate against anyway; so God help them now that you have shifted this burden.”
You’re also a real trailblazer as the first transgender arbitrator appointed by the RICS Dispute Resolution Service. Are you hopeful more will follow?
Oh, absolutely. It’s a reflection of a change of direction in the RICS, which accompanies the recent report into its governance, which made it very, very clear that diversity and inclusion must form part of the new structure going forward. I hope that, going forward, people will be valued for their brain rather than how they dress.
Hear, hear. You are also one of the senior arbitrators selected to implement the government’s Covid-19 scheme. Is it proving successful in resolving pandemic rent arrears?
Where it’s had the impact is that it has forced landlords and tenants into a discussion where discussion didn’t previously exist. So, in that respect, I would say that it’s a good enabling piece of legislation and I think it’s working.
On a related note, you launched your consultancy firm, Warren Wright Associates in April 2020 – an interesting time for commercial leasing…
It was very quiet! I set it up because I’d retired from CBRE and I didn’t want to let my brain go to mush. My objective was to tootle along and do a few dispute resolution matters and in the back of my mind all the time was the transition. And so, in 2020, I thought well, there’s not that much around, but that’s OK as it gave me a chance to get things sorted out. Then a number of rather large pieces of work came in, involving guarantors to leases who were in trouble, and it sort of developed from there. I never really wanted WWA to be anything more than a hobby. I’ve had my time of stress. But it’s kept my brain very, very active.
We have to talk about your beloved Leeds Rhinos – they’re not having the best season…
They’re not, but they are starting to improve. We were drawing on academy players in the early part of the season and now we’ve got the core of the team back. I haven’t got up there recently, but make sure I watch them when they’re on the telly. What has really impressed me both in rugby union and league is the advancement of the women’s game. I had the privilege of being on a panel just last week with Christy Haney, who is a current Ireland international.
What are some of your other passions and have you discovered any new ones in the last couple of years?
I’ve discovered an expensive one: make-up! One of my birthday presents last year from two lovely ladies in my life was a Dior makeover and lesson with the team in Southampton, which I had on Friday. I ended up spending a fortune. My old passion, which still hangs with me, is aviation. The last film I saw was Top Gun: Maverick – amazing. There were a couple of scenes which took me straight back to my twenties, early thirties. When they flew through the viaduct it reminded me of the first time that I flew in an aircraft and was told to drop down to ground level and fly underneath the power cables on the Isle of Wight.
If Top Gun: Maverick was the last film, what was the last good book you read?
Rob Burrow’s Too Many Reasons to Live. The sheer guts of the man, a Leeds Rhinos favourite who has motor neurone disease. To see his fight and the fight of those close to him, it’s such an inspiring read.
And do you have an absolute guilty pleasure you resort to for comfort?
Fine quality cheeses! Some farmhouse home-produced cheeses are just fantastic. You don’t need to go to France to get a very, very good cheese.
London Pride is coming up this weekend, will you be heading along?
Pride Month has had me running around in circles giving presentations. I might be at the parade, because the London Transgender Clinic, which has been the most fantastic healthcare environment I have ever met, has asked me – Christopher Inglefield, my surgeon, and Mary Burke, head of the hormones team. Quite frankly, without Mary, I wouldn’t be here. I simply wouldn’t. They are a wonderful, wonderful team.
If they persuade you, will you be fully made-up, Dior style, with your glad rags on?
I will – but I won’t be walking in heels!
Read Gaynor’s full story: Finding Gaynor: an uplifting story of embracing one’s true self
