Georgina Beyer

Georgina Beyer MNZM JP (November 1957 – 6 March 2023) was a New Zealand Labour Party politician who represented Wairarapa in the Parliament of New Zealand from 1999 to 2005, after serving as mayor of Carterton from 1995 to 1999. Beyer was the world's first openly transgender mayor, and the world's first openly transgender member of parliament. As a member of the Labour Party Beyer supported progressive policies including prostitution law reform, civil unions, anti-discrimination laws, and the promotion of Māori rights. She resigned in 2007, and, in 2014, unsuccessfully stood for election on behalf of the Mana Party.

Born in 1957 at Wellington Hospital to Noeline (née Tamati) and Jack Bertrand and assigned male at birth, she was named after her grandfather, Lieutenant Colonel George Bertrand, who was second in command in the Māori Battalion. Her parents were living in Hataitai at the time of her birth. She was of European and Māori (Te Āti Awa, Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Raukawa, and Ngāti Porou) descent. Her mother had a second child with her first husband in December 1958, who was placed for adoption. Beyer was sent to live with her grandparents on their farm in Taranaki during this second pregnancy. Her parents divorced by 1962.

Her mother married again in 1962. Her mother's second husband was Colin Beyer, a recent law school graduate. The couple moved to Upper Hutt. Beyer, now aged four and a half years, returned to live with her mother and stepfather. Her brother was born in December 1963. Beyer attended Upper Hutt Primary School and from age seven, after the family moved to the Wellington suburb of Crofton Downs, Ngaio School. With marital problems developing between her mother and her stepfather, Beyer was sent to Wellesley College boarding school, where she attempted suicide amid feelings of rejection by her parents. From Form 2, she attended the school as a day pupil, as the hostel had closed. After her parents' marriage ended in 1971, financial constraints meant that a private school was no longer affordable, and Beyer attended Onslow College in Form 3. Beyer then moved with her mother and brother to Papatoetoe to be near family and friends, with Beyer attending Papatoetoe High School. Before enrolment, a legal surname change by deed poll from "Bertrand" to "Beyer" meant that the difference in family name did not have to be explained at school. It was also seen as socially advantageous for Beyer to be linked to her successful stepfather. Beyer began acting while at that school and decided to make a career out of it, leaving school at 16 (against her mother's will).

Beyer lived in Australia for some time, and in 1979 experienced a traumatic sexual assault in Sydney; she felt unable to seek help from the police, which led her to start thinking about a political career. On her return to New Zealand she began seeking work as an actor with increasing success, culminating in a GOFTA award nomination for best female performance for the television drama Jewel's Darl in 1987. In 1984, Beyer underwent gender-affirming surgery.

Beyer became a part of the Wellington gay nightclub scene, initially as a singer and drag queen performer, and later as a sex worker. After moving to Carterton, in the Wairarapa, she worked as a radio host. Beyer was the local news presenter and part of the inaugural breakfast crew on radio station Today FM, then owned by Paul Henry (whom she later defeated in the 1999 general election).

After her return to New Zealand and move to Carterton, Beyer began to take an interest in local politics, first winning election to a local school board. She was elected mayor of Carterton in 1995, which made her the world's first openly transgender mayor, as well as the first female mayor of Carterton and first Māori mayor in the Wairarapa district. In 1996, Wellington mayor Mark Blumsky said he thought she was "very good at her job". In 1998 she was re-elected with 90% of the vote. In 2000, she resigned, following her election to Parliament; in 2004 she said resigning was one of her biggest regrets.

At the 1999 general election, Beyer was selected as the Labour Party's candidate for the Wairarapa electorate. She surprised political commentators by winning the typically right-leaning electorate, with a 3,033-vote majority over former colleague and National candidate Paul Henry, and becoming the world's first transgender Member of Parliament. In her maiden speech, Beyer said:

Mr. Speaker, I can't help but mention the number of firsts that are in this Parliament. Our first Rastafarian [Nándor Tánczos]… our first Polynesian woman [Luamanuvao Winnie Laban]… and yes, I have to say it, I guess, I am the first transsexual in New Zealand to be standing in this House of Parliament. This is a first not only in New Zealand, ladies and gentlemen, but also in the world. This is an historic moment. We need to acknowledge that this country of ours leads the way in so many aspects. We have led the way for women getting the vote. We have led the way in the past, and I hope we will do so again in the future in social policy and certainly in human rights.