Transgender People Got Elected

Many people have considered the past few years to be dark times politically for transgender Americans. With the administration banning us from serving in the Armed Forces, to proposed rules to allow discrimination in emergency shelters and health care, to “bathroom bills” popping up in state legislatures from coast to coast, it seemed like elected representatives were turning against us at every level.

Then something wonderful happened. Some of us started running for office. And many of us started winning.

Danica Roem

In 2017, Danica Roem became the first openly transgender person elected to a state legislature, winning a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates (equivalent to the House of Representatives in most states). The victory was all the sweeter as she beat a long-term incumbent who was a self-proclaimed transphobe who refused to debate her and misgendered her constantly. He was also the sponsor of Virginia’s failed bathroom bill.

Roem was re-elected in 2019 and has gained a reputation as an effective legislator,

This year, Sarah McBride became the first openly transgender woman to be elected as a State Senator, winning a seat in Delaware’s senate and making her the highest-ranking transgender elected official to date. She first gained the national spotlight in 2016 when she spoke at the Democratic National Convention.

Sarah McBride

Danica and Sarah may have pushed the doors open, but many are following. After Roem’s victory, one transgender woman won a seat in the Colorado House, and two did so in New Hampshire. From NBC news: “Voters in six states handed eight transgender, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming candidates victories in state legislatures this week.”

There are still a lot of glass ceilings still waiting to be broken, though. Transgender people have run for Congress, but without success so far. In Vermont is 2018, Christine Hallquist won the Democratic Party’s nomination for governor, but lost the general election to a popular Republican incumbent.

I made a bit of history in my own community on Election Day when I was elected to my fifth term as a Lincoln County Commissioner, but it was my first election since my public transition in 2018. When I worked with a reporter for a length profile in The Oregonian, the state’s largest newspaper, she tried to find another instance of someone doing this, but only found cases of people running after transitioning.

So maybe I knocked down another barrier. If so, I’m glad. It wasn’t a landslide, but it was a solid win (55 percent-45 percent). I knew I was fighting incumbent fatigue. Our community was hit hard by COVID-19 and I had to make more controversial decisions this year than in my previous 15 years in office combined. And of course, transphobia reared its dark, slimy head.

No one confronted me in person; they used social media to hide behind their keyboards, which is what cowards do. They couldn’t even be original; I was a “mentally ill man in a dress.” Although some of them could be loudly obnoxious and cruel, they were few in number. Still, I had to wonder, how many were out there who kept silent but shared similar sentiments? If the election was close enough, could they make the difference?

It was a tense few weeks leading up to the election, but I was thrilled and relived at the outcome. Our tourism-based economy was hit hard by COVID. In September, a wildfire at the north end of our county wiped out 300 homes. Fortunately, no lives were lost, but that adds another major rebuilding task to our agenda.

I move forward with this work with a renewed faith in the decency of most people, though I know we have decades of struggle ahead to claim our full, rightful place in American society.

Tags: featured, opinion, politics, Transgender

Category: Transgender Opinion, Transgender Politics