Transsexual MP greets the Queen as she lands in New Zealand

By Caroline Davies in Wellington
Last Updated: 10:09PM GMT 22 Feb 2002

OF all the hundreds of official line-ups greeting the Queen on overseas visits over 50 years, yesterday must surely have been the first time they included a transsexual MP.

But Kiwis take pride in their liberal and enlightened society.

So the Queen, on descending the steps from the Royal Flight at Wellington, New Zealand, after a 20-hour flight from Jamaica, found herself being introduced to Georgina Beyer, a former stripper, erotic dancer, and male-prostitute.

Once called George, Ms Beyer underwent a sex-change operation and metamorphosed as an MP and mayor.

Ms Beyer is, reputedly, the world's only transsexual member of parliament, a happy transition she has summarised as: "I began as a stallion, then became a gelding and then a mare and now I'm a full member again."

She stood in a line-up of officials as the Queen touched down for the second leg of her three-nation Golden Jubilee tour. The Queen smiled and chatted briefly to her.

New Zealand, where the Queen is head of state, has a high proportion of women in powerful roles, including the other two senior constitutional positions.

The official welcoming party was led by Dame Silvia Cartwright, the governor-general. Helen Clark, the prime minister, has appointed more women to senior posts, including Sian Elias as chief justice, and Margaret Wilson as attorney general.

Those at the airport also included Diana Marriott, believed to be the first woman to be chairman of a Rugby football club, Waipukurau High School Boys' Rugby Club.

Squadron Leader Leanne Woon, 35, the Queen's New Zealand equerry-in-waiting, is the only women to have held this post throughout the realms. Maoris look to Queen Te Atairangikaahu as their cultural leader.

None of this is a surprise in a country which gave women the vote 25 years before Britain.

The Queen, wearing a forget-me-not blue coat with matching hat, spent less than half-an-hour at the airport before boarding another plane for Lake Taupo, for a private weekend relaxing at the £400-a-night Huka Lodge, set on the banks of the Waikato River, a prime fishing territory, and one of the locations used in the film Lord of the Rings.

Not far away is The Duchess pool, on the nearby Tonario River, so named because the Queen Mother loved to fly-fish for brown and rainbow trout as Duchess of York in the Thirties.

The Dutch millionaire, Alex Van Heeren, who owns the lodge, said the Queen's visit, which is her third, and Prince Philip's fifth, was an enormous privilege.

"But the visit is totally private. They are here for rest and recreation." She had, the local media reported, requested pumpkin to be served during her brief stay, and would be offered the ubiquitous lamb and trout.

Perhaps it was because the Queen's arrival for her 10th visit to New Zealand was so deliberately low key that Ms Clark decided it was in order for her to miss it. She was in Stockholm for a conference after visiting the London School of Economics.

Her absence, though agreed by the Queen who understood her prime minister's commitment to the foreign engagements, will be seized on by Aotearoa, the republican organisation which uses the ancient Polynesian name for New Zealand meaning "Land of the Long White Cloud".

Already New Zealand has divested itself of the titles Knights and Dames from its twice-yearly honours list, on the grounds that they are "the increasingly quaint trappings of another society". Ms Clark has said it was inevitable that New Zealand would become a republic in time.

She has spoken of the frustration many Kiwis feel about having a head of state some 12,000 miles away.

Such sentiment is evident in a television poll conducted as the Queen arrived which showed that 58 per cent of New Zealanders believed the monarchy had little or no relevance in their lives.

Just seven per cent believed the Queen to be "extremely relevant". Yet, despite general apathy towards the Royal Family, only 33 per cent wanted to become a republic.

"She's not doing a bad job," said the Republican movement's leader Dave Guerin. "It's just a job not worth doing and it should have been restructured many years ago."

He said that during her six-day visit, the Queen only "had a total of about five minutes walkabouts" to meet ordinary New Zealanders.

"She has nine hours of official and public engagements, not a lot after [not visiting for] seven years," he said.