The Message Sent

Voters sent a powerful message not only against the current administration but also about not standing for the hate that the Republican party has been spewing. The voters have said that they don’t care if a person is black, Hispanic, gay or lesbian, or trans, they said that they will vote on the issues.

Minneapolis Transgender Pols: Wins Show Hatred Won't Stand
Two newly elected transgender members of the Minneapolis City Council say their historic wins are a victory for equality in the U.S.
US News & Reports
AP
Nov. 9, 2017

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Two newly elected transgender members of the Minneapolis City Council hugged, shared a high-five and enjoyed cheers from onlookers as they met at City Hall.
[…]
Cunningham says when voters found out he was transgender and black — and that his husband also is transgender — they said, "That's who I want to represent my neighborhood."

Jenkins says their election is a signal that "hatred and bigotry in this country will not stand."

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Trans people have been elected before here in the US they just weren’t “out” and what is different now is that they are “out” and they still got elected.

Transgender people have been elected before. But they can finally let the voters know.
Washington Post
By Marwa Eltagouri
November 9, 2017

Tuesday was a historic night for the nation’s transgender community, which watched as at least six transgender people won elections and paved the way for others to join them in leadership positions in the coming years.
[…]
The key word in these landmark wins is “openly” — these transgender candidates aren’t the first to be voted into public office.

The difference, historians say, is that Roem, Jenkins, Cunningham, Middleton, Titus and Koontz all campaigned as transgender advocates and were open with voters about being transgender. Voters then elected them into their respective offices, in theory because they were the best candidates for the job.

Over two decades ago a trans woman was elected to the Massachusetts state legislature but she wasn’t “out.”

In 1992, former Boston Herald reporter Eric Fehrnstrom — who would later become a top aide and political strategist for Mitt Romney — outed Althea Garrison, a woman who had just been elected to the Massachusetts state legislature.

She has never publicly acknowledged her transgender status but is widely considered the first transgender black woman to hold public office.
[…]
Susan Stryker, an associate professor of gender and women’s studies at the University of Arizona, said that while Garrison was somewhat a perennial candidate — always running for something — she was ostracized and sidelined after the reporter made the revelation. At the time, it was unlikely for transgender people to have a public career, she said.

Other trans people have run and lost while some had legal problems that prevented them from serving their terms…

In 2012, Stacie Laughton became the first openly transgender legislator elected in New Hampshire. She never took her seat in the state’s House of Representatives, however, because news surfaced before her swearing in that she was a felon, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader. She pleaded guilty in 2008 to charges of fraudulent use of a credit card under the name Barry Charles Laughton Jr.

One thing is true is that we are going to see a lot trans and LGB candidates in the coming years.