Georgina Beyer Actress, politician Country: New Zealand

Biography of Georgina Beyer

Georgina Beyer is an actress, politician, and the world's first openly transgender member of parliament. She was born in 1957 in Wellington, New Zealand, to a Maori family and given the name George Bertrand. Her early childhood was spent on a farm in Taranaki, living with her grandparents. She later moved to Wellington to live with her mother. Soon after completing college, she started performing in gay nightclubs. She then moved to Sydney, Australia, where she worked as a stripper and a prostitute.

In Sydney, Beyer was involved in a traumatic incident where she was gang-raped by four men. This experience seems to have convinced her to try to change the course of her life. She returned to New Zealand and continued working as a stripper and a drag queen. In 1984, she underwent gender reassignment surgery. Beyer then pursued a career in theater, appearing on stage in theaters and cabarets, as well as in films and on television. She also worked as a radio host and continues to act in theater to this day. In 1987, she was nominated for the "Jewel's Darl" award at the New Zealand Listener Gofta Awards.

Beyer began her political career in Carterton, a small town near Wellington, by being elected to the local education board. In 1995, she became the mayor of Carterton, winning with 48% of the votes. She was re-elected in 1998 with 90% of the votes, making her the world's first transgender mayor. Beyer was a keynote speaker at the International LGBT Human Rights Conference in Montreal in 2006 and in Copenhagen in 2009.

A documentary film titled "Georgie Girl" has been made about Beyer's life and journey, which was first screened in Russia at the Bok o Bok Film Festival.