the First in France the mayor is transgender appeared in the small town of Tilloy-lès-Marchien, replacing his predecessor, who was at the head of the commune more than twenty years.
fifty-five years old changed To Marie at the head of the small community, numbering about five hundred inhabitants, situated in the North of France in the region Of Haut-de-France.
the New mayor was elected by an overwhelming majority of votes of the members of the municipal Council in the presence watched through the Windows of the town hall, several residents.
on Saturday Marie To become the first transsexual mayor in the region, but perhaps even in all of France.
“I am very proud that you chose me, says the mayor of the newly adding. – You have to admit that in the beginning it wasn’t obvious…”.
an Engineer by training Mari To live in Tilloy-Les-Marchienne for twenty years. And five years ago, it is reported that transgender after a decade and a half of the transition period was/became “fully woman.”
“I didn’t have to change his name because Marie is my middle name by birth and I am fluent in it within two years, allowing the Civil code,” explains Marie Ko. And says: “I’m not an activist”.
According to Marie: “the people chose me not because I am a transsexual or not, they chose the program.”
says the co-founder of National transgender Association Stephanie Nico, as far as she knows, Marie Ko – the first transsexual elected mayor in France. And clarifies that there are people who can hide their orientation, not wanting to do belongs to the public sphere.
Stephanie Niko believes that “these elections have shown that even if France is lagging behind badly on all questions relating to minorities, our citizens are becoming more and more progressive” people choosing their representatives, regardless of their gender identity.
anyway, the world already has a few cases where transgender people become mayors.
In the United States first openly transgender mayor in November 2008 was STU Rasmussen, who was elected head of the Silverton (Oregon).
activist for the protection of the rights of transgender Jess Helen Herbst was mayor of new hope (Texas) two years from may 2016 to may 2018. She became the first openly transgender mayor in the state.
In Italy last year the mayor of Tremelo, a small town South of Milan, was elected 40-year-old lawyer is transgender, and Gianmarco Negri. This is not the first case where a transgender man entered the Italian political system: in 2006, a member of Parliament from the party of Communist Refoundation, was elected as an activist and defender of the rights of sexual minorities Vladimir Luxuria, sported women’s clothes (in this case of sex change surgery does not phave dovodilos). The emergence of such a Deputy has prompted discussions about the need to create in Parliament a separate toilet for the “third sex” – along with the traditional “M” and “F”.
