Beyer has eye on mayoralty

Nathan Crombie | 10th April 2010 Wairarapa Times-Age

GIRL'S BEST FRIEND: Former Wairarapa MP and Carterton Mayor Georgina Beyer has returned to normal work as a sales professional for Michael Hill Jeweller in Masterton. PICTURE / LYNDA FERINGA

Georgina Beyer _ the first transsexual MP and mayor in the world _ has taken up a day job selling jewellery in Masterton.
Ms Beyer, 52, was yesterday sporting the crisp and corporate black suit of a Michael Hill sales professional after her first week in the job and said her return to the nine-to-five working world is ''a step back to being normal, back to the coal-face as it were''.
However, she is not letting the precious gems bedazzle her and is also eyeing the Masterton mayoralty, dependent on feedback and support for her bid.
''I don't have the finances to run a huge campaign but I do have a profile already and it would be at least irresponsible, reckless even, to let the political experience I've gained just disappear and go to waste.''
She said she supports an amalgamation of the three Wairarapa councils without abandoning the Wellington regional authority as ''the figures still don't stack up for me'' regarding a unitary council for the region.
''We need some smart heads at the top in Masterton right now as it is the provincial hub of the Wairarapa and if there is a reorganisation at that level, Masterton will be a major player.
''And my loyalties are not divided _ I mean, I was Carterton mayor and I've been living in Greytown for the past six months.

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I have grave concerns about the wisdom of cutting ourselves off from Wellington but the three Wairarapa councils already co-operate over many issues, so what's the big hassle about making the political leap.''
Ms Beyer counts the mayoralty as ''a full-time job'' and would reconsider her work with Michael Hill ''if I stand and, of course, if I won''.
She has not worked in retail, she said, since leaving college to hawk menswear for Hallensteins as a 17-year-old named George.
''That was a lifetime ago.''
Ms Beyer said she discovered in Wellington she was transgender and, after changing her name to Georgina, had worked as a stripper and prostitute. About 1987, she shifted to Wairarapa, working as a radio host with a home in Carterton.
Ms Beyer returned to the capital as the first transsexual member of Parliament in the world, serving with the Labour Party from 1999 to 2007.
She was first elected Wairarapa MP with a 32 per cent swing from National to Labour and resigned as the world's first transsexual mayor (of Carterton) in 2000 after wearing the chains of office for seven years.
Two years later she was re-elected as Wairarapa MP and re-entered Parliament in 2005 as a Labour Party list MP. Do you support Georgina Beyer for Mayor of Masterton? Email editor@age.co.nz with your thoughts.