After several years of sun lamp treatment for his rickets, at St Mary's Hospital, he was considered well enough to attend Havely Hay Primary school at the age of five.
In 1966 his mother, Barbara Elizabeth Whittle (née Stead), being concerned at how different he was from his sisters, entered him in the examination for Withington Girls' School.
[8] In 1974 Whittle came out as a trans man, after returning from a women's Liberation Conference in Edinburgh, which he attended as a member of the Manchester Lesbian Collective.
[11] In 1979 he joined a former Army officer and then royal sculptor, Judy Couzins, a trans woman in the Self Help Association for Transsexuals (SHAFT).
[14] Though unable to marry legally in the United Kingdom until the passing of the Gender Recognition Act 2004, he and his partner (now wife), Sarah Rutherford, have four children by artificial insemination.
"[15] The Whittles' efforts to gain recognition of Stephen as their children's legal father led to X, Y and Z v. The United Kingdom before the European Court of Human Rights in 1996.
He has written and spoken extensively on his personal journey, most notably in his autobiographical statement in Will Self's essay for David Gamble's photography collection 'Perfidious Man.
'[17] His writings have included, among other things, an article on the ground-breaking transsexual employment discrimination case decided on by the European Court of Justice.
[citation needed] His multiple sclerosis has been an increasing problem since late 2005, yet he continues in his full-time university post, and his fight for the human rights of trans people throughout the world.
[18] In recent years, he has collaborated with other members; Paisley Currah, Shannon Minter and Alyson Meiselmann, of the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) on amicus briefs to courts in many jurisdictions.
He also continues to work on what he hopes will be the defining history of transgender, and the sources of the many theories surrounding gender variant people.