The role of transgender people in the history of the fight for LGBTQ rights is prominent. The changes like protests and activism, were often led by transgender human rights defenders. Some of them tried to fight for equality through political activities.

In this article, you will learn about 9 transgender politicians who have made historic changes and are still actively fighting for LGBTQ rights.

Jowelle de Souza

Jowelle de Souza is a transgender and queer human rights activist as well as an animal rights activist from Trinidad and Tobago. She was the first transgender woman to sue the government for degrading treatment. In February 2022, de Souza became the first openly transgender senator in the country’s history.

Petra De Sutter

Petra de Satter is a gynecologist and LGBTQ + activist who has represented the Flemish Green Party in the European Parliament since last year. She is also a professor at the University of Ghent, lecturing on reproductive health. The 57-year-old politician is the first transgender vice-premier and the first transgender member of the Belgian parliament.

Anna Grodzka

Polish politician Anna Grdzka became the first transgender parliamentarian in the history of Poland and the third in the world in 2011. Grodzka founded the organization Transfusion in 2008. It works to improve the legal status of transgender people. The organization provides psychological support to transgender people and their loved ones in the transition process. As well as legal advice and assistance in the process of legal gender reassignment.

Georgina Beyer

Former drag singer and sex worker, LGBTQ human rights activist Georgina Beyer is the world’s first openly transgender parliamentarian. She has spoken in public about the transition process, the challenges facing transgender people. She is to credit that sex work has become legal in New Zealand.

Vladimir Luxuria

Italian actor, activist and politician, Vladimir Luxuria, organized Italy’s first pride march in 1994. She became the world ‘s second transgender parliamentarian in 2006. Luxuria, who has always actively spoken out about the legal status of transgender, gay, lesbian, bisexual and gay people, has led to political change in Italy.

Lina Axelsson Kihlblom

The first representative of the Swedish government, the Swedish Minister of Schools, Lina Axelson Kilblom is a lawyer, education expert and activist. In an autobiographical book published in 2015, she spoke openly about adolescence, which was full of challenges, and about the transition that helped her find herself.

Tessa Ganserer and Nick Slavik

In 2021, Tessa Ganserer and Nick Slavik were able to become the first transgender members of the Bundestag. Members of the Green Party support the anti-discrimination law, which requires half of members of parliament to be women. They are actively working to make the gender reassignment process dependent on self-identification and to develop a national action plan to combat racism, sexism, transphobia and homophobia.