Jamie Lee Hamilton

Who is Jamie Lee Hamilton?

Jamie Lee Hamilton is a Canadian politician and advocate of aboriginal people, residents of the city's poverty-stricken Downtown Eastside, and sex trade workers. She was an independent candidate for the publicly elected Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation in the city's 2008 municipal election, after being controversially blocked from running on the Non-Partisan Association ticket.

She previously ran for Vancouver City Council in 1996, becoming the first openly transgender person ever to run for political office in Canada.

Hamilton is also a writer, entertainer, and guest lecturer in Women's and Gender Studies at the University of British Columbia and in Humanities at Capilano College. She is working on a research project at UBC, "The Expulsion of Sex Workers from Vancouver's West End, 1975–1985", as she was one of those expelled by the court ruling.

She currently serves on the board of directors of the Greater Vancouver Native Cultural Society, which has served the aboriginal two-spirited community since 1978. Hamilton is a lifelong resident of the Downtown Eastside and Strathcona neighborhoods of Vancouver.