The world's first sex-change mayor and mayoress have been elected in Cambridge.
Liberal Democrat mayor Jenny Bailey and her partner Jennifer Liddle were both born men before having operations to become women.
Miss Bailey, 45, who had a sex-change operation in her thirties, had previously married and fathered two children.
She met 49-year-old Miss Liddle, who will be her mayoress, while both were having hormone replacement therapy.
They have served on Cambridge City Council together and share a home with Miss Bailey's children.
Miss Bailey, who takes up office today, said: "So many more things define me than being transgender, a medical condition I had 15 years ago which I have now recovered from.
"I'm proud that I managed to get through something which was quite difficult and managed to come out of it a better person.
"I certainly do not want it to eclipse being mayor."
Miss Bailey, whose father was a prison officer, went to college in Coventry before moving to Cambridge where she worked in radio technology.
She met her future wife aged 24 and, believing that becoming a family man would make her feel "normal", they had two boys, now aged 18 and 20.
However, she was unable to shake off the urge to make the transition from man to a woman and the marriage came to an end.
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