Found at stuff

The three-term Wairarapa MP, the world's first transsexual politician, said she was disillusioned with life after politics and upset at the treatment she had received from her former Labour Party colleagues.
Ms Beyer said that while other former Labour MPs were appointed to boards, she had received nothing and was turned down for a position on the Human Rights Commission.
The former chairwoman of Parliament's social services committee said she had been forced to accept the unemployment benefit for several months late last year before selling her house to pay the bills "so I didn't have to be on the dole".
"I have all this accumulated knowledge and experience and no one wants to employ it, and I'm not sure why," she said.
"That I'm of no further use to my country is why I'm considering Australia, that my former parliamentary colleagues seem not to want to appoint me to anything, but are quite happy to accommodate others who have left or are about to, so as to shut them up from whingeing from the sidelines in election year.
"One could be forgiven for being a little vexed."
Her comments follow publicity about former Labour list MP Dianne Yates, who has been appointed to four boards this year by the Labour-led Government.
Ms Yates stood down in March as part of Prime Minister Helen Clark's MP rejuvenation drive.
Ironically, Ms Beyer, as an ambassador for Dressed for Success, an organisation that provides business clothes to women to wear to job interviews, has been trying to help disadvantaged women find new careers.
Ms Beyer is a former mayor of Carterton, in Wairarapa, and was a contestant on Dancing With the Stars. She quit politics midway through this parliamentary term and had hoped to pursue a career in entertainment.
She pulled out of a stage play at the 11th hour, however, saying she was not ready for the role.
In her valedictory speech in February last year, Ms Beyer described her political career as the "greatest moment of my life".
But she said she now felt disillusioned by it.
"Politics was never my ambition. I was coaxed into it by others," she said.
"I always wanted to achieve in the entertainment industry. That I succeeded in politics was as much a surprise to me as anyone.
"I'm too tarnished as a former transsexual politician to be taken any more seriously in entertainment than Dancing With the Stars...
"It seems that I am not valued for my experience in either local or central government, so I guess I wasted 14 years of my life in publicly elected service and ended up unemployable."
Ms Beyer has been working part-time as Wairarapa's Violence Free coordinator, but the position finishes next month. She is planning a move to Australia in December or January.
A film of Ms Beyer's colourful life, entitled Girl, is in production. She declined a cameo role in it.

Found at stuff

Technorati: Georgina Beyer New Zealand transgender transsexual labour Parliament

Found at tvnz

The Rarotonga Queens, one of the Cook Islands' best known stage acts, are famous for their flamboyant cross-dressing antics.
On stage, they are outrageous crowd pleasers, but it's what goes on behind the scenes that they are fighting for.
For years they have been ridiculed and have never been taken seriously in a society that is still strongly conservative towards transgender.
The Queens put on a show at the launch of the Tia Tiare Foundation, which is an organisation in the Cook Islands which helps people in the transgender community.
The group say they banded together to promote respect in a bid to protect their rights and be treated with dignity.
"A lot of the local people have actually laughed at them, ridiculed them, and haven't given them the time of day & the members of Te Tiare Foundation have decided enough's enough its time for the members to be recognised," says Rohan Ellis, the event organiser.
If numbers were anything to go by, the message was a success. The show was a sell-out attracting locals and tourists alike.
Ellis says the event's success proves Cook Islanders are embracing of differences in society.
However appearances can be deceiving.
"There is a certain acceptance to a certain level but not as complete, not as much as we would like it to be," says Tangee Kokaua, one of the Raratonga Queens singers.
But many say it's a start.
The queens of Rarotonga are coming out in style and for them it's about moving forward one step at a time.

Found at tvnz

Technorati: transsexual transgender new zealand Rarotonga Queens Cook Island acting art