Listen Now: 
Download AudioFormer MP Louisa Wall says the late Georgina Beyer was a miracle who transformed New Zealand and New Zealand politics.
Beyer, the world’s first transexual mayor and member of parliament, died yesterday in Wellington’s Mary Potter Hospice aged 65 after a long illness.
She had connections to Te Āti Awa, Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Raukawa, and Ngāti Porou.
After serving as mayor of Carterton, the former actor and radio host won the seat of Wairarapa for Labour in 1999.
Ms Wall says she shone a light on transexual identity.
“And really helped us all understand human beings who are born in bodies that don’t fit how they see themselves, She;’s an absolute icon and legend and I’m incredibly proud to have known her and worked with her and there’s a lot of sorrow but this really an opportunity for us to celebrate all that she was,” Ms Wall says
She has been working with Georgina Beyer on her Wai 703 claim on the suppression of takatapui identity, which was included in the kaupapa Maori health inquiry.
RELATED NEWS
