conscasa的部落格

CHRIS SKELTON/Fairfax NZ KELLY ELLIS: 'My masculinity slipped like fine sand through drunken fingers. CHRIS SKELTON/Fairfax NZNOT BOTHERED: Dave Ellis says his father's gender reassignment was the casting off of a facade. Politics More than 100 jobs may go at Statistics NZ Banks's lawyer applies for discharge National's fiscal lockdown a risk Today in politics: Saturday, April 5 Conservatives unveil candidates Shake-up brings job losses at primary industries ministry Court can't find against John Banks, lawyer argues Biosecurity backed after fruit fly find WINZ gets new list PM marvels at Taupo's Sculpture Garden As a bloke, wannabe MP Kelly Ellis was as rugged as they come. Now she is appealing to the Whangarei electorate to embrace her softer side - as a woman. It's a familiar refrain: Kelly Ellis believes her marriage would have failed if she hadn't made changes to her life. "I am sure my partner would have left me," she says. "I was an arrogant fella who was out yacht racing and drinking four, five nights a week if I could. I was ready to have a battle with anyone. Kelly Ellis's change was more dramatic than most; she was formerly Sean Ellis and credits her gender reassignment for revealing a humbler, more empathetic side. And it's this change that has this former teenage runaway, sheep-shearer, motorbike journalist, champion angler, yachtsman, criminal lawyer and pig farmer pursuing a place in Parliament. Even putting aside that she was once a man and is now a woman, hers could be the most remarkable backstory of any would-be MP. Asked last month if he knew the whole tale, Labour leader David Cunliffe intoned: "A lot of our candidates have dirt under their fingernails." That's rather a simplification given that before the age of 18, Ellis had lived in an orphanage, on a beach, in a commune and with drug addicts, was expelled from school and worked on a car-assembly line. To add Labour MP to her bulging CV, Ellis must overturn retiring National incumbent Phil Heatley's "piffling" 12,000 majority in a seat last held by Labour in 1972. A national swing to Labour, her active pursuit of young voters, and a potential split in the grey vote should Winston Peters make good on a threat to stand as constituency MP could, she argues, deliver her the seat. It may seem unlikely. "People have said I've no show here," says Ellis nonchalantly. "But people have said I had no show with lots of things. Best to begin not at the point at which Sean became Kelly but much earlier, at the Home of Compassion orphanage, Wellington, in the early 1960s. "I remember seeing kids hanging off the hurricane wire fence on Saturday and Sunday week after week, month after month, and nobody ever came for them," says Ellis. "But they still hung there . . . they still had hope. Ellis was left there by her mother between the ages of three and five. "I have very clear memories. Some things are etched to my synapses forever. Undoubtedly it did some damage. It taught me some self-reliance. One of the things I learned is if I close my eyes, I can go off into a world of infinite imagination and find all those things I dreamed of. Her dreams were a home, a job, someone to love and a black Honda 750 motorbike. It took time for her to realise how to get there. When she left the home, she was a wild, unsocialised child who smoked and could cook and wanted to live on the beach and "cook anything that moved". Thanks to an alcoholic stepfather and struggling mother, she spent time dodging school and living with hippies. She didn't know who her father was until she was 12 and didn't meet him until she was 14, but says both he and her surviving, final, stepfather are good men. Eventually asked to leave Wellington's Onslow College, she was flatting with junkies at 16. "I got through my childhood; I won't say just fine, but I got through and I kept my eyes on the things I hoped for. She worked at General Motors, a shoe warehouse and a car-detailing company, punctuated by stints "in the bush" with the hippies and in Auckland, before studying School Certificate at night school. And so, in 1980, she was able to enrol in Wellington Polytech's journalism course, graduating alongside Mark Sainsbury, Metro's Steve Braunias (who says Ellis was "cheerful, a nice person, an outsider") and the Herald's Fran O'Sullivan, and got a job at the Taihape Times. From there, she specialised in motorbike journalism, before heading to law school and a career as a criminal barrister. Ellis compares her experience of finally coming good to the travails of her youngest son, Dave, "a barista, painter's labourer and bloody good lawn mower" (who was, however, sacked from the Farmer's catalogue for suggesting the clothes were shit). "Even though I thought I had it tough as a youngster, there were doors I could knock on and things I could do and they are not available to the youngsters of Whangarei," she says. "You'd think it would be enough if you worked hard, had a good attitude, did as you were told. So because he's currently jobless, Dave, an enthusiastic 19-year-old with an emo haircut and a crumpled suit, is heading the Ellis caravan. She needs him, managing three diaries and trying to work, she seems a touch flustered. Dave, however, is serene. Cheerfully, he says he's not bothered by his father's gender reassignment, and says while he originally kept it quiet at school, experienced no teasing. It made sense, he says, it was Kelly "casting off the facade". He's on driving duties when we meet. Ellis is enveloped in the first wave of fluff candidates must both endure and be seen to enjoy, so our interview straddles a visit to a Niwa research centre at Ruakaka, on the rugged coast south of Whangarei. There's a long, very long powhiri in a room decorated by a giant plastic kingfish, in which Shane Jones smiles beneficently and Cunliffe nods along, and even, at one stage, sways. It's Ellis's first meeting with the leader. "Kelly is a very bright woman who is committed to work hard for the interests of the people of Whangarei," he tells the Star-Times. To those who wish to make a fuss about her background, "get over yourselves". No, he doesn't expect any dirty tricks. Ellis emerges smiling, and as a keen angler, seems to have genuinely liked it. After our next chat and some photos, she's off to see primary school teachers with Chris Hipkins. On policy, she seems particularly leftist: she argues for the redistribution of wealth, government support of industry and job creation and against the "bailing out of all those fat cats who put their money into South Canterbury Finance". But Ellis admits she was a lapsed Labour member when the idea first arose to stand for Parliament. This isn't, she emphasises, the selfish, solitary ambition Sean Ellis would have pursued. A group of liberally-minded Whangarei criminal lawyers met, considered what they might do to make the town better, and agreed one of their number should run for Parliament. Ellis was suggested. "We'd all like to do ourselves out of a job," she says. "That would mean a better and safer town for our kids. Now, she says, she's merely part of a tight campaign team working for her election. Politics, strangely, will be something of a release from the misery which confronts her in her day job, where she mainly defends accused sex offenders on legal aid. Until last year, her herd of pigs fulfilled a role as confessors. "They were always willing to listen," she says. "Sometimes they would give a contemptuous snort when I became a little self-indulgent. But you can't expect entirely professional counselling from swine." She cried when she sold them. Ellis refuses several of our photographer's suggestions for poses, saying they will reinforce stereotypical images of transgender people. And she reckons that the voters of Whangarei are "over" her sex change. "My cats don't care, my partner doesn't care, my kids don't care, the judges don't care, the clients don't care - who the hell does care?" She becomes theatrical. "If they do, where's a rock, I'll give it to them. She charts the start of her "slow, incremental" journey from man to woman to the sale of her Holden Monaro and its replacement with a less blokey Peugeot. She also got rid of her gun collection and the camouflage pants: "My masculinity slipped like fine sand through drunken fingers. She considers herself, and says: "I didn't think I would look this feminine. I thought I would be some strange androgynous fruit of the South Seas. I never anticipated being a middle-aged blonde matron. But then she begins to explain it more in terms of character than physicality. She talks about how initially, when she was still wearing a suit but taking hormones and "looked rather queer" she would strive to avoid conflict, a strategy that one day left her eating her lunch in the rain outside a Hamilton courtroom because the lawyers inside had been rude to her. She considered emigrating somewhere more liberal. Instead she set up an advocacy group TransAdvocates, which also pursued marriage equality because "I felt railroaded out of my marriage by the legislation. Ellis, originally named Sean Kelly Ellis, has since remarried her former wife, confusingly also called Kelly but at home she's K1 and her wife is Kel. Ellis says she had toyed with all this when she was a 15-year-old, "hanging around Carmen's coffee lounge, desperately trying to get into trouble - I never did get into trouble I was well looked after". She said the career options then for a transgender person were sex work or exotic dancing; she didn't want to sleep with men and wasn't much of a dancer. The options are, of course, much better now. She nods to the trailblazing of the first transgender MP, Georgina Beyer, but what has intrigued Ellis most has been the loss of her white male privilege - something she didn't believe in until it was gone. "It's the freedom from the prejudice that everyone else gets for being a woman, brown, trans, gay, disabled. "It was the most humbling experience an arrogant lawyer could possibly have, to feel this stripping away of privilege. I won't say I know what it's like to be disabled or a racial minority, but I sure know what it's like to experience prejudice and I'd never experienced it before. That, however, has been a good thing. "It has made me an easier person to get on with, that's for sure. My wife says if she'd known it would be like this, she would have put oestrogen on my cornflakes years ago. Stuff Headlines Foreign firms are 'ripping off Kiwis' Ko could be the greatest female golfer ever Jesus was a hobo, academic claims It's the digital election race Stars make music video to 'free' Teina Pora Travel probs? Get bitter on Twitter Expat tales: A new Finnish beginning Mum gave me the skills to survive What's the secret to happiness? It's family Earthquakes? Blame the Kapiti creep The secret diaries of . . . NationalWorldBusinessTechnologySportEntertainmentLife & StyleTravelMotoringStuff.co. Emailnewstips@stuff.co. Congratulations on your hard work Word ladder blanks Allstate insurance vendor program Client inviations Daisy marie escort services Tandy safe house alarm Emma starr raped Aetna eligibility check phone number Cheerleader lip slip Indesign cs4 serial number needed Papa johns printable job application Mesa gardens apartments pueblo co Questions to ask girlfriend Apartment move out letter template Rem sleep nightmares Naruto shippuden episode 71 full Character reference for military Daughter dominating mom Pene de david zepeda Trazodone impotence treatement Netflix keeps stopping and loading Jemma jey face bookemma jey face book Alcohol substance abuse program Nicco sky wallpapersicco sky wallpapers 1st wedding anniversary poems daughter son law Free famous people scroll saw patterns Most luxurious department stores Nausea and cold clammy Foto model pembantu Generic zoloft side effects Clear cm after ivf transfer How to converting metric pdf Mom teaches son how to jackoff Elite pain tube free Mom walks on friend jerking off New p r o x i e s Taking boniva and evista together Jose cuervo grand reserve Hijas que follan asus padres Letter of recommendation for green card from landlord Women showing nipples Dog knots men Free dawn of war cd keys Icd 9 code for elevated trop Jacquard winter hats 2 guys horse original guys horse original 2012 acls manual pdf Inventory control cover letter Reasons to jailbreak your iphone Moshi monster mopod codes Father teaching son to masturbate Ritalin use us Ballbusting events london Sample message for online dating attracting men Ea cash card redeem codes Ideas for senior 2013 t -shirtsdeas for senior 2013 t -shirts Best man scripts How to make royal icing ladybugs Holly sonders height & weight Methodist hospital stone oak jobs Free pattern on how to make frock coat Men masterbating women College penant templates Invitation to fantasy football Edible car designs Chocolate bars with magic mike movie wrapper Kroger tuxedo cake Funny names to call people with bracesunny names to call pe Coding auditor resume sample What type of flash do i need to update my kindle fire hd Watch mattos horse Free newborn dress pattern Pastor ron carpenter Tparts of the cell instructional fair inc 3d origami phoenix instructions Crochet neck warmer patterns freesx Cowart clan kennels Cheat for torchic in platinum Kugel hernia mesh Boyfriend country songs Masters criminal justice worth it Free sluts on bbm Unit 1 poems from vocabulary workshop 12 person cheerleading formations Back view of choppy haircut Marge simpson belly button Galilee sail Gf see thru Elderbeerman pay bill Famouse people with fake teeth Loz simdate rpg girl Follando en paris Medical claims example for filling implants Baldwin county public records corrections Middle school 5 paragraph essay Took vicodin with suboxone Funny quotes about pest control What if att 3800hgv- b service light is Xbox 360 attention getter Nursing cover letter new grad English banana bloons 4 Immigration hardship letter sample International reverse phone lookup Dads jerk off sons Hydroxyzine equivalent benadryl Sample recommendation letter for pharmacy technician Fractured mountains quilt pattern Tresume example for hair stylist Ton the diagram of rbc production what does a represent How to draw a homie viedo Examples about yourself for dating Make a fake birth certificate online Examples of what to say in an anniversary card Penile implant and pictures Cerita lucu tentang blackberry Rashel diaz nips Labyrinth soundtrack bowie Madre chimando a su hijo English to ilocano translator Two naughty moms naughty america Clip art super hero First choice coupon How i became sissy shemale Rue 21 employment reviews Marketing gifts for apartments Combat arms trial Mariam in exodus Eb1 recommendation letter Answers to enriched edition vocab Hot flashes frequent urination in men Novotel berlin am tiergarten Blanc burger nutrition info Cheat codes for grand theft vice city for ps2 Top picture japanese junior idol imouto Taetna influenza 2012 coding Free netflix login information 2013 Bowflex xlt video Animal print car seat and stroller combo Golden serbian spruce Cojiedo con Adults with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder Premier jewelry catalog 2010 online Ebru gunash husbandbru gunash husband Nj alcohol serving test Brent corrigan teacher and student Bubble sheet for multiple choice Accidental double dose of keflex Anything new on mal malloy Dog gets knottedog gets knotted Blue atlas cedar sale Number to lusteric jail dallas,tx Crna recommendation letter Pineapple paper piecing pdf Mobile foot tickling videos Hvac invoice forms excel Michael kelly dragonfly 4 string Itachi mugen char from coding school Brinks home security model 5072rinks home security model 5072 One year dating frienship anniversary quotes Kingston ontario motorcycle club Men s haircut chart Private investigator resume Farm tractors built by renault Tamoxifen buy best Blank id template Clone trooper armor Generate for slaves bdsm Anniversary letter husband Sample of scholarly writing as a personal philosophy of nursing. Newstudyhall happy wheels Drank too much alcohol Busch gardens quick queue promo code Grocery store cashier job description Free jumpsuit patterns College internship resume example Hack into girlfriends facebook Hp portable printer ebay Pen pal letter example in spanish Chuck- e -cheese coupons for tokens Cartoon name generator Lockton professional insurance Women spray when master baiting Download free phim karate teen How many oxycodone will get me high Clip art nintendo dsi Menards metal building gauge How to cut elastic jeans New study hall 2.org Ruby tuesday job application form pdf Natalia villaveces in play boy Hack straight talk phone for free minutes Fb chat on dsi Contnued education classes at malcolm x Free farkle chips Abhr (ativan benadryl haldol reglan ) Bible quotes for condolences Ternary ionic compounds worksheet answers Free stuck on the knot Tdunkin donuts job description cashier 47 bloating women