For Australian Sex Party candidate Melissa Star headlines are something she can’t avoid.
If successful at the upcoming Federal election, the 37-year-old will become Australia’s first transsexual member of Parliament.
Ms Star says it’s just part of who she is.
Australian Sex Party Candidate Melissa Star. Photo via sexparty.org.au
“There are people for whom it forms a big part of their identity, for me it doesn’t … I want to be seen as a political candidate who happens to be a computer consultant, a ballroom dancer and who had a sex change operation,” she said.
The first time candidate has more than a few stories to tell.
Ms Star’s parents fled Belarus as refugees to New Zealand where the family briefly lived out of a garage.
Two years later, when she was five, they moved to Australia.
The computer consultant says while LGBT related polices are what first motivated her political career, she has become equally as passionate about the Australian Sex Party’s other policies, including allowing minors to obtain abortions without parental consent and reducing the influence of religious institutions on law-making.
“I think the underlying theme that a person’s life is worth something, a person should have a fair go, a person should have a chance at happiness and because of that a person has rights and responsibilities,” she said.
Come Saturday September 7 Ms Star will be contesting the Melbourne Ports electorate, a seat held by the Australian Labor Party since 1906.
City Journal’s complete audio of the interview can be found below
