World’s first out trans parliament member dies at 65

Georgina Beyer
Photo: YouTube screenshot

Georgina Beyer, the world’s first out transgender member of a national parliament, has died at age 65. While her cause of death has not yet been publicly released, she had kidney disease and was in hospice care before her passing.

Beyer underwent gender-affirming surgery in 1984 at the age of 27 and worked as an actor, drag performer, sex worker, and radio host before being elected to political office.

Beyer became the world’s first out transgender mayor in 1995 when she was elected to lead Carterton, a town of about 10,000 people in New Zealand’s North Island. She also was the town’s first female mayor and the first person of Māori native descent to serve as a mayor in the Wairarapa region. She won re-election to the office in 1998.

She resigned as mayor in 2000 after…

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