Tessa Ganserer


Tessa Ganserer is a German politician. She is a member of Alliance 90/The Greens political party and serves as a member of the Landtag of Bavaria. Ganserer came out as a transgender woman in 2018, becoming the first openly transgender person in a German state or federal parliament.

Biography

Ganserer was born on 16 May 1977 in Zwiesel, Bavaria. She studied forestry and engineering at Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Science, graduating in 2005. Later that year she worked as a staffer for German politician Christian Magerl.
Ganserer belongs to Alliance 90/The Greens, a green political party, and has been a member since 1998. She ran for a seat in the Landtag of Bavaria in 2008 but was unsuccessful. From 2008 to 2018 she served as the District Executive of the Green Middle Franconia. In 2013 she was elected in the Nuremberg North electoral district to sit in the Landtag. She sat on the committees for Economic and Media Affairs, Infastructures, Construction and Transport, Energy and Technology, and as Vice Chairman of Public Service from 2013 until 2018.
In December 2018 Ganserer came out as transgender woman, becoming the first member of the Landtag of Bavaria and of a German parliament to be openly transgender. She made her first public appearance as a woman at a press conference in Munich on 14 January 2019. Ilse Aigner, a member of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria and President of the Landtag of Bavaria, supported Ganserer in her transition and welcomed her to parliament as a woman.
While her gender change has not yet been legally finalized, she is recognized in the Landtag as a woman.
Ganserer is married to Ines Eichmüller and has two sons.