Alex Hai won the right to become a private gondolier in 2007, winning praise from feminists around the globe, but has revealed he always felt uncomfortable in his woman’s body

A German who fought to become Venice’s first female gondolier has revealed that he has always considered himself a man and is undergoing gender reassignment surgery.

Alexandra Hai, 50, won praise from feminists worldwide during his battle to be accepted by Venice’s guild of gondoliers, which had not employed a woman in 900 years. After receiving threats and failing entrance tests amid accusations of sexist bias by judges, he won the right to become a private gondolier in 2007.

This week Alex, as he is now known, announced that he is Venice’s first transgender gondolier. “I myself am not a woman, and the struggle of feminism is not my personal struggle,” Mr Hai wrote. He told syndicated US radio show Radiolab that he was having