Vanessa Wedding made history in 1969 as the first New Zealander to undergo gender affirming surgery. During this period, trans men and women were invisible and had few avenues to express themselves. Vanessa was considered a desirable candidate to be the next trans woman to have the operation – the second in Australasia and the first from New Zealand. I was finally a woman.”Six months after the surgery, Vanessa returned to New Zealand to start her new life. At the time, Vanessa was not legally able to change her gender on her birth certificate, which still identified her as male.

Source: Stuff February 18, 2021 03:00 UTC