Georgina Beyer.

 

Beyer gives as good as she gets from Roseanne

 

01.02.2000

 

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WELLINGTON - Millions of Americans now know about transsexual Wairarapa MP Georgina Beyer, thanks to talk-show host and comedian Roseanne Barr.

Barr interviewed Ms Beyer live for five minutes, using a video conference link, for the Roseanne Show.

Ms Beyer was generally pleased with how the interview went but she was a "wee bit miffed" at the tone Barr took.

She was told in advance that Barr would ask her about being the first transsexual MP, but Barr took the tack that "women are obviously taking over the world."

"I did battle my way through it," Ms Beyer said. "She [Barr] can be fairly rough. She's up-front and she doesn't hold anything back on the way she's feeling. She tried to justify that she wasn't in a man-hating mood. She was fairly blunt."

Ms Beyer was also blunt. "I'm afraid I matched her tone in a sense. It probably wasn't terribly dignified, but ... I did balance it by extolling the virtues of New Zealand being a wonderful place.

"She seemed quite impressed with the number of women in the New Zealand Parliament and she was certainly impressed with my election into Parliament. She did intimate that New Zealand must be one of the neatest countries in the world that has this liberal attitude that women can be well represented."

The Roseanne Show is screened on TV3 but Ms Beyer did not know when her interview would be shown here. - NZPA