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Historic News:
Transsexual Joins New Zealand Parliament

Is the World's First Popularly Elected Transgendered M.P.

Georgina--An Honest One-time Prostitute, Actor & Stripper

By Rex Wockner International News Report

New Zealanders elected the world's first openly transsexual member of parliament November 27.

Georgina Beyer, 42, will represent the nation's conservative Wairarapa region in the southeastern corner of North Island for the Labour party. She beat her nearest opponent, a Conservative, by a vote of 12,693 to 10,189.

Georgina Beyer

A nationally-known actor and former prostitute, stripper and drag queen, Beyer is also mayor of Carterton, a town of 7,000 people. She changed her gender in 1984.

"Of course, I'm feeling quite humbled by this event," Beyer said in an interview with Wockner News. "I think it speaks volumes to minorities in the world that you can overcome adversity and achieve and be successful so that you can be a positive contributor to society."

Beyer said no one made an issue of her transsexualism during the campaign except the media.

"They always seize upon it as a novelty and it usually ends up working in my favor when they do that because the angle that they try to take, it doesn't discredit me but it certainly tries to push it out there as an issue as to why people would not vote for me," she said.

"I have always maintained that the gender question is not the issue. It is the ability of the person to be able to do the job. With the experiences I've had in my life -- but also in my local government career -- I believed that I was the person that was going to be the best for the constituency."

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Beyer says she'll work on gay and lesbian issues with New Zealand's two openly gay members of Parliament -- Tim Barnett and Chris Carter. Barnett, who represents Christchurch Central, was re-elected November 27. Carter, who will represent the Auckland suburban region of Te Atatu, was re-elected November 27 after having been ousted in the previous parliamentary election.

"I will certainly be involved with that," Beyer said. "It would be unthinkable that I wouldn't have some involvement with those issues. It won't necessarily be my primary interest. I represent an electorate now so that has to be my priority, but of course I'll be working with any human rights issues that we need to deal with.

"I also serve as a board member of the New Zealand AIDS Foundation and have worked with the gay/lesbian/transgender community in the past -- and I have also portrayed [gay] characters on television and done it successfully -- so I'm definitely part of that community and I'm proud of who and what I am, so there's no problems there," she said.