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Meet the Transgender Americans Who Won on Election Day
Post submmited by Charles Girard, Digital Organizer
In an incredible turnout of pro-equality voters, Americans across the country elected at least six out transgender people to office during yesterday’s election.
These historic wins took place in states across the country from Georgia to Pennsylvania, as Americans rejected the vitriolic rhetoric that Donald Trump and Mike Pence continue to spew.
HRC applauds the following openly transgender candidates who won a wide variety of races:
Andrea Jenkins, Minnesota (Minneapolis City Council)
Voters elected Jenkins to the Minneapolis City Council as the first openly transgender woman of color elected to public office in the U.S.
Danica Roem, Virginia (Virginia House of Delegates)
Roem unseated anti-LGBTQ Delegate Bob Marshall, and her electoral victory will make her Virginia’s first out transgender public official and the nation’s only out transgender state representative.
Gerri Cannon, New Hampshire (Somersworth School Board)
Cannon joined the Somersworth School Board yesterday. According to her LinkedIn page, she is planning on running for New Hampshire State Representative.
Lisa Middleton, California (Palm Springs City Council)
Middleton’s victory in the Palm Springs City Council election made her the first openly transgender person elected to a non-judicial office in the state of California.
Stephe Koontz, Georgia (Doraville City Council)
Koontz won a spot on her hometown city council, becoming her city’s first openly transgender elected official.
Tyler Titus, Pennsylvania (Erie School Board)
Titus’s win makes him the first out transgender person elected to office in Pennsylvania after a successful write-in campaign to join the ballot.
HRC is still closely watching the uncalled Minneapolis City Council Ward 4 race, where transgender candidate Phillipe Cunningham could join Jenkins.
These candidates represent not only regional voters, but the 1.4 million transgender Americans across the country.
“For trans youth across the country, Danica Roem’s election isn’t just a headline or even history,” HRC National Press Secretary Sarah McBride told The New York Times. “It’s hope. Hope for a better tomorrow.”
At a time when the Trump-Pence regime continues to attack underrepresented Americans, these candidates prove that LGBTQ people and their allies are resist, vote and win.
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