An MEP has revealed she is Britain’s first sex-change parliamentarian after undergoing gender reassignment surgery more than 20 years ago.
In a new autobiography about her political career, Nikki Sinclaire has spoken for the first time about her ‘great secret’ of growing up as a boy.
The 45-year-old was elected as a UKIP MEP for the West Midlands in June 2009, but was expelled from the party in 2010 after a row over policy.
As long term readers will know I worked on the campaign that led to her election (I was part of the national campaign, not the local) and one of the things that interested me about it all was that Nikki was simply never an issue. Not bad for a party that outsiders see as being solely composed of intolerant bigots.
Yes, the same party that got Godfrey Bloom into the EU Parliament also put Nikki Sinclaire there.
My takeaway from all of this is that the Great British Public just don’t care about many things quite as much as the standard political classes think they should. A 6 foot 6 transgender giant?* Hmm, but what does she think about Europe, eh? That’s the important thing.
*I am not a doctor etc but she certainly appears to me to have certain attributes of “giantism.” Which may not be the correct word but still.
On said intolerant bigots, The Fountain Of All Knowledge has this to say: “She was elected MEP in June 2009 as a UK Independence Party candidate but later resigned from the Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) group in which UKIP is part of in the European Parliament, citing the alleged extreme right-wing views of some of the group’s members.”.
Not suggesting any paid-up swivel-eyed loons were among the intolerant bigots, but the claim hardly surprises me.
Looking up the alleged MEP expenses’ scandal mentioned in the Mail piece, it seems that NS has been on bail for the best part of 2 years.
Since Feb 2012. On an allegation about £840.
Acceptable?
What people care about is a newer car on the drive, a bigger house, a clean hospital, a good school for their kids and a bigger turkey at Christmas.
Something to consider as a parallel: how many people cared about what Cole Porter was getting up to between the sheets, or which god that Gershwin had been brought up to believe in, or the colour of Sam Cooke’s skin?
The fact is that the best way to deliver the proggy agenda on race, sex and gender isn’t with lots of committees. It’s markets. Because someone running a business who discriminates is going to find themselves being put out of business as their competitors will hire the best people.
And I remember that she complained about the homophobic attitude of UKIP at the time and that she was targeted because she is a lesbian. I think that she may even have gone to a tribunal about it (?)
I’ve never looked into this in any detail, but it is fascinating that one’s gender orientation doesn’t necessarily reflect one’s sexual orientation.
I wonder whether you meant “acromegaly”, Tim?
Maybe I’m on instinct or autopilot here, but I rather think that having a gender reassigned girl who still beds girls has got some confusing issues which may make her unsuitable for a cabinet post. Likewise a drug fiend promiscuous homosexual may not be a suitable chairman for a mutual society, even if it was founded in Girochdale.
A 6 foot 6 transgender giant?* Hmm, but what does she think about Europe, eh? That’s the important thing.
So you have a 6′ 6″ transgender “lesbian” who seems to have some issues with colleagues?
I would go a little further than BiF and I might even suggest that may be he has a raft of issues there which may make him less than ideal as a candidate. I am comfortable with my bigotry, really I am, but even if I wasn’t some of these things may be symptoms of deeper problems which would suggest UKIP should not have selected him.
But it is nice the voters of Britain don’t care. British people are in so many ways a tolerant lot. Unless, of course, they did so because they did not take UKIP seriously.