Jenny Bailey

Jenny Bailey is a British Liberal Democrat politician who was the civic leader of Cambridge City Council in Cambridge, England. Bailey served her mayoral term from 2007 to 2008. Bailey became a member of the city council in 2002, when she was elected to represent the suburb of East Chesterton within Cambridge. She served the council continuously from 2002 to 2007, rising the ranks until she was chosen to become mayor in 2007. Prior to her appointment as full mayor, she acted as a deputy in 2006.

She was the first transgender mayor in the United Kingdom, and the second globally after Georgina Beyer, Mayor of Carterton, New Zealand. Bailey herself was keen to play down the significance of her appointment, saying, "I don't want to let it define me." Bailey had undergone gender transitioning 11 years prior to assuming office in the council. Liddle, a former councillor, She began hormone replacement therapy in 1990, aged 29. There she met her current partner, Jennifer Liddle, who also worked as a software engineer and was also undergoing gender transitioning. Bailey had sex reassignment surgery in 1993.

Bailey follows the Buddhist religion and is a vegetarian in accordance with these beliefs. She was promoted to deputy mayor in 2006, acting as Ceremonial Bailiff to the mayor at select civic ceremonial events.

At Cambridge City Council's annual meeting on 24 May 2007, Bailey was appointed mayor for the municipal year of 2007–2008, thus becoming the 801st first citizen of Cambridge. Her job as mayor entailed attending approximately 500 social engagements. Bailey chose two charities, Press Relief and the Cambridge Museum of Technology, to be the primary benefactors of the fundraising done throughout her tenure. Bailey, however, said that she did not want the issue to eclipse being mayor.