Trans, Non-Binary Rainbow Wave in Statehouses
Queer candidates of color bring series of “fi rsts” to their respective states nationwide
BY MATT TRACY
Transgender and nonbinary
candidates running
for posts in statehouses
across the nation
scored historic victories on election
night, marking the beginning of a
new era of trans representation in
politics. The election also proved
to bring intersectional diversity to
statehouses, with a wave of LGBTQ
people of color winning seats and
queer candidates in multiple states
becoming the fi rst out lawmakers
in their respective legislatures.
Out transgender State Senate
candidate Sarah McBride won her
general election race in Delaware
and became the highest-ranking
trans elected offi cial in the nation,
while out trans Kansas State
House of Representatives candidate
Stephanie Byers emerged victorious
and made history as the
fi rst trans person of color elected
to a statehouse in the nation. Byers,
who is a member of the Native
American Chickasaw Nation, is
also the fi rst trans person elected
to the Kansas Legislature.
In Oklahoma, Mauree Turner
won their race for a seat in the
State House of Representatives
and became the fi rst out non-binary
state lawmaker in the nation
and Oklahoma’s fi rst Muslim state
lawmaker.
Out trans Vermont State House
of Representatives candidate Taylor
➤ TRANS TROOPS, from p.4
In 2019, Gay City News reported
on the complexities and contradictions
of the Trump administration’s
ban on transgender service
members, which the president
abruptly announced via Twitter
in 2017 and later handed off the
implementation of the policy to
then-Secretary of Defense James
Mattis. Ever since, the policy faced
uncertainty, confusion, and legal
challenges: Would all transgender
service members be banned?
Would only newcomers get barred
from the military?
Mauree Turner is the fi rst out non-binary state lawmaker in the United States.
Small, a 26-year-old who works
as the director of the health and
wellness program at the Pride Center
of Vermont, also brought queer
representation to the Vermont Legislature
for the fi rst time ever after
winning a seat of her own.
Meanwhile, other queer candidates
found success all over the
map. Out bisexual candidate Jess
Benham, running to become a
state representative in Pennsylvania,
won with ease as she became
the fi rst out LGBTQ woman to hold
offi ce in that state. Benham will be
one of the few out autistic individuals
to serve as a state lawmaker.
In New York, as Gay City News
earlier reported, out gay school
teacher Jabari Brisport ran unopposed
When Gay City News contacted
different branches of the military
last year to seek specifi c terms of
the ban, the newspaper received
a range of responses that refl ected
wide disarray in the policy’s
implementation. Spokespeople for
multiple branches said the discharging
of transgender service
members was not tracked at all,
and although the military insisted
that the policy did not represent a
total ban on trans service members
since some were exempt, that
assertion was hardly believable
because transgender troops with
a diagnosis of gender dysphoria
FACEBOOK/ MAUREE TURNER
as he secured a State Senate
seat in Brooklyn and became the
state’s fi rst out Black LGBTQ person
in either chamber of the Legislature,
while another State Senate
candidate, Tiara Mack of Rhode Island,
became the fi rst out LGBTQ
Black member of her state’s upper
chamber.
Down in Georgia, much of the attention
has been focused squarely
on the tight presidential race and
the twin Senate competitions —
but those are not the only consequential
battles in that key Southern
state. Out Black lesbian State
Senate candidate Kim Jackson
walloped her Republican competitor,
William Freeman, getting more
than four times as many votes as
would be disqualifi ed unless they
were already serving in accordance
with the gender they were assigned
at birth.
While the Army and Marines
acknowledged there were no discharges
up until that point last
year, the Navy and Air Force said
those numbers were not tracked
and the Coast Guard did not offer
a formal response.
The 2017 announcement came
a year after President Barack
Obama’s defense secretary, Ash
Carter, effectively ended the military’s
ban on transgender service
members.
ELECTIONS
he did as she became the fi rst out
LGBTQ member of Georgia’s upper
chamber.
And though Florida did not go
the Democrats’ way in the presidential
election, there were still
some silver linings: out gay Florida
State Representative Shevrin
Jones, who is Black, knocked off a
nearly a half-dozen candidates in a
State Senate race as he routed the
competition and brought LGBTQ
representation to the upper house
for the fi rst time. Florida House of
Representatives candidate Michele
Rayner was elected as the fi rst out
LGBTQ Black woman in the State
Legislature.
On the West Coast, 25-year-old
Alex Lee easily won, becoming the
youngest Asian-American to join
the California State Assembly and
the fi rst out bisexual member of
the State Legislature.
David Ortiz (not to be confused
with the former Red Sox slugger)
brought bisexual representation to
the State Legislature in Colorado,
which has an out gay governor in
Jared Polis. Ortiz unseated incumbent
Republican Richard Champion.
Voters in Hawaii, meanwhile,
welcomed Adrian Tam to the Hawaii
House of Representatives as
he knocked off Nick Ochs, a leading
fi gure in that state’s chapter of
the Proud Boys. Tam rose to offi ce
as the only out LGBTQ person in
the State Legislature.
“We in the Defense Department
and the military need to avail
ourselves of all talent possible …
to remain what we are now — the
fi nest fi ghting force the world has
ever known,” Carter said in June
of 2016.
The Obama administration also
ended the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy
that was fi rst implemented by
President Bill Clinton and banned
gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals
from serving openly. Unlike
transgender folks, those individuals
have been able to serve openly
ever since the offi cial termination
of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in 2011.
GayCityNews.com | November 19 - November 25, 2020 5
/GayCityNews.com
