[ad_1]
Georgina Beyer, the world’s first transgender member of parliament and a tireless advocate for LGBTQ rights, has died aged 65.
Beyer had been battling kidney disease for a long time but the statement about his death did not mention the cause.
A former sex worker, actor and drag queen, Beyer was elected to New Zealand’s parliament in 1999 after four years previously winning election as mayor of Carterton, a rural town on the country’s North Island.
He served as a Labor MP until 2007.
Made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit by Queen Elizabeth II in 2020 for services to the rainbow community, she is known for her work on the legalization of civil unions and gay marriage as well as the decriminalization of prostitution.
Speaking before Parliament on the issue of prostitution reform in 2003, he said: “I support this bill for all the prostitutes I have known who have died before the age of 20 because of the injustice and hypocrisy of a society that will not give them a chance to redeem themselves. any situation that can happen in the industry.”
Of Maori descent, he ran again for Parliament for the former Mana Party in 2014, but was unsuccessful.
Beyer received a kidney transplant in 2017 after four years of end-stage kidney failure that required daily dialysis.
He died in hospice care on Monday, according to a Facebook post by Scotty Kennedy, a friend.
“Georgie was surrounded 24/7 by his nearest and dearest for the past week, he accepted what happened, made jokes and had a twinkle in his eye, until his last moment,” Kennedy wrote.
‘Georgina blazed a trail’: PM Hipkins
Beyer previously said she began living as a transsexual in 1976 and eight years later underwent reassignment surgery.
He told the Independent in Britain in 2002 that seeing a drag show when he was young was an exciting moment.
“This is the first time I’ve met a transgender person,” he said. “I didn’t even know the culture existed. It’s like I’ve hit home.”
Beyer drew laughter from his new colleagues in his first speech in Parliament.
“This is a stallion that was a gelding and now he is a mare, and I have to say that I am now a member,” he said.
Beyer’s history-making feat was followed by a documentary tracing his experiences, 2001. Georgie Girl.
He had planned to resign after one term as an MP, citing exhaustion, but many of his constituents in Carterton reacted, convincing him to seek another term.
After leaving the room a few years later, he told his colleagues in a speech that he felt he had been able to “redeem my more lurid past.”
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said Beyer made a lasting impression on Parliament.
“I definitely think that Georgina made the road easier for others.”
[ad_2]
Source link