I am one of three Labour transgender councillors who are out and proud.
I believe that, if we are to deliver proper, effective public services, we need councillors, local authority officers and others who commission and deliver these services to be representative of their communities.
I stood on having the ability and skills to do the job effectively for my residents, who always come first; having those skills is important, not that I am transgender, which is irrelevant.
I am well respected by the residents as I go the extra mile to ensure my case work is done to the highest standards.
My duties include serving on the council’s Adults and Safer City Scrutiny Panel, Equalities Advisory Group, and Non-Statutory and Statutory Licensing Committees. I am Vice-Chair of the Planning Committee and chair Wolverhampton’s Labour Group.
Having such a prestigious platform allows me to host various events and undertake other extra activities.
I wrote a specific ‘Be a trans councillor’ programme that was delivered in Manchester in 2019 – and I continue to provide support via Zoom and to encourage others to stand for public office.
I have been inspirational in getting Wolverhampton council’s human resources team to improve its profile of recording the diversity of its workforce, for all of the protected characteristics and not just some.
If you don’t collect equalities data, then you are not counted, and you don’t count when it comes to commissioning public services. This has been a big issue for the LGBT+ community, as this data is not routinely collected by public services or on the national census.