'Tranny Granny' stays on human rights panel

Posted in: New Zealand Daily News
By GayNZ.com Daily News Staff - 7th November 2009

The West Coast's much-loved 'Tranny Granny' Jacquie Grant has been reappointed for another two-year stint on the Human Rights Review Tribunal.

'Tranny Granny' Jacquie Grant

Grant, 65, has been on the Tribunal since 2004, and tells GayNZ.com she didn't expect to be rehired now that there's been a change of government.

"Labour's Margaret Wilson was very supportive of me, but with her lot gone I thought I'd be out. But now Simon Power has reappointed for two more years, so I guess I did a good job," she laughs

Twenty people from around New Zealand sit on the Human Rights Review Tribunal, and are called up every few weeks to sit in court and hear cases of human rights abuse. "Usually when people come to the Human Rights Commission with issues they get resolved through mediation, but if they remain unresolved they go to the Tribunal - and beyond that they can go to the High Court," Grant explains. "I have worked on fifteen or so cases each year."

Grant was made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 1998 for services to the community.