Two men who identify as women were elected by voters on Tuesday, one running for city council in Minnesota and another seeking to serve in Virginia’s House of Delegates.
Andrea Jenkins, whose birth name has not been cited in reports, was elected to the Minneapolis City Council with 73 percent of the vote. Jenkins began presenting as a female 26 years ago at age 30, and has been working as the senior policy aide for Councilmember Elizabeth Glidden for the past 12 years.
He also is active as a poet and a transgender activist, working with the Transgender Oral History Project (TOHP) at the University of Minnesota.
Jenkins announced his candidacy for the 8th Ward seat last year after Glidden decided not to run for reelection.
“I am prepared and ready to bring positive change toward a more equitable Minneapolis,” he said in a statement. “I look forward to working with the residents of the 8th Ward, and beyond, in creating the policies and programs necessary to bring sustainable improvement for everyone in our economy, housing, and services.”
On Tuesday night, Jenkins stated that with his win the days of transgender people being “marginalized” are over, as “[w]e don’t just want a seat at the table, we want to set the table.”
“Transgender people have been here forever, and black transgender people have been here forever,” he told the Washington Post. “I’m really proud to have achieved that status, and I look forward to more trans people joining me in elected office, and all other kinds of leadership roles in our society.”
Virginia, Democratic candidate Daniel “Danica” Roem was elected to the House of Delegates 54-45 over incumbent Republican Bob Marshall. Roem works as a journalist and is also a heavy metal rocker with the band Cab Ride Home, which describes itself as “drunken thrash metal” on its website.
“[O]ur songs are about drinking and our shows are about raging,” the band description reads.
“Just because I sing in a heavy metal band while spinning my head in circles and getting paid to do it, why can’t I run for government?” Roem told the outlet Noisey in June. “Why would I have to change who I am in order to run for government? I’ve already had to go through transformative change.”
Marshall, who served for 13 terms, stood against the affirmation of homosexuality and gender confusion in office, and refused to refer to Roem as a woman during the election.
Marshall had proposed a bill last year that would have required the use of restrooms and locker rooms at government-run facilities, including public schools, to align with one’s birth gender. However, in January, his “Physical Privacy Act” was dispensed with no voice vote and no debate, which Marshall called “disgusting.”
Full report – Christian News Network