If the spirit of Stonewall—where drag queens were said to have led riots in the streets of New York City—seems to have swept rapidly across America over the past 30 years, it has often raced at an even quicker pace in other countries, where political and cultural realities allow for quite different outcomes.

Take, for example, the tiny country of New Zealand, where 42-year-old Georgina Beyer, mayor of the town of Carterton for the past four years, in November became the first transgendered member of Parliament—of any parliament in the world.

“Stonewall had a big effect on New Zealand and on gay liberation,” Beyer says from her new offices in Wellington, New Zealand’s capital. The irony, she points out, is that the United States, which gave birth to Stonewall, has now fallen behind many other countries in guaranteeing civil rights for sexual minorities. “I find that in America, as one of the most free countries in the world with respect to the whole broad arena of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender rights, people still have to fight hard for things that we seem to have gotten quite easily. Maybe it is because America is so huge that it is harder.”

New Zealand, with a population of just less than 4 million, passed national human rights legislation banning discrimination against lesbians, gays, and people with HIV in housing and employment in 1993, only seven years after sex between consenting male adults was decriminalized. It is one of only a handful of countries that allows foreign partners of its gay and lesbian citizens to immigrate to its shores and become naturalized citizens. And New Zealand’s new prime minister, Helen Clark, is now talking about legalizing same-sex marriage. And while there are antigay religious zealots in New Zealand just as everywhere else, such hatemongers have little political power.

Beyer’s journey has been symbolic of New Zealand’s own progress. Part Maori, New Zealand’s native people, she grew up as George Beyer on a farm in the bucolic Taranaki region. As a young man she acted on a TV soap opera in Wellington. But when she began going out in drag to Wellington’s gay nightclubs, the producers told her she needed to tone it down. That was not something she was willing to do. She left the show, fell on hard times, and even briefly turned to prostitution.

During that period of her life, while in Sydney, Australia, she was brutally raped by four men one night. It was, understandably, a life-changing experience. “It damaged me emotionally, and it gave me reason to reassess my life,” she says. “I ended up developing fire in my belly.”

She moved back to New Zealand, where she did some more film and television acting—playing female and transgendered roles—and started saving money. She underwent gender reassignment surgery in 1984, and in 1990 she moved to the tiny rural town of Carterton, where she became involved in politics, earning the respect of the local farming community. She lost her first race for district councillor in 1992 by only 14 votes, then was elected to the council a year later. She was elected mayor in 1995, then eventually went on to run for member of Parliament.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Beyer’s recent victory is that the mere fact of her being the first transgendered member of Parliament doesn’t seem to phase New Zealanders. “New Zealanders are tolerant, and the more they become educated on these issues, the more they make informed decisions,” Beyer notes, though she’s careful not to gloss over problems. “I don’t want for a min ute to let you think there are not those who find [homosexuality and transsexualism] abhorrent,” she cautions. “But things have been changing rapidly.

“I believe it will take another generation for all of the negative behavior against gays to be all but extinguished,” she says humbly when asked what advice she might have for U.S. activists. “Part of the way to overcome the prejudice is to point out the error of the ways of the detractors, but individuals in our gay communities must above all else maintain their pride and dignity.”

This article was first printed in The Advocate. Copyright 2000 by Michelangelo Signorile. All rights reserved. No part of this article may be used or reproduced without written permission except in brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

back to top