It has been almost twelve years since Georgina Beyer became the first open transperson elected to a national legislative body when she was elected to the New Zealand Parliament in November 1999.In the United States the highest elective office a transperson has yet to successfully achieve is Kim Coca Iwamoto's election in 2006 to the Hawaii State Board of Education.
Others have attempted to get elected to state legislatures or large city councils but have not been successful in doing so.
We now have an opportunity presented to us in this election cycle in which we have three well qualified candidates posed to break through an electoral glass ceiling.
It'll be to paraphrase astronaut Neil Armstrong, one small historic step for those individuals, but one giant leap for the transgender community's striving for attainment of the next phase of political power and legitimacy.Brittany Novotny in Oklahoma, Dr. Dana Beyer in Maryland and California's Victoria Kolakowski are currently running campaigns to secure elective offices that no open trans persons have achieved before.
While Novotny and Beyer are seeking state legislative seats, Kolakowski is seeking one that is just as important in a county judgeship.
In order to achieve the dream of congressional representation, we will not only have to continue to participate in party politics at the precinct level, we will have to start donating to campaigns as well.
And contrary to public perceptions, it doesn't take megabucks to do so to amass a political war chest that will allow you to run a quality campaign.
Remember the 2008 presidential campaign when the trans community set up an ActBlue page that raised over $10K for the Obama campaign basically on $5, $10 and $20 donations? I believe and have no doubts that ActBlue page is one of the reasons factoring into why we've had some fantastic gains for trans people come out of this White House.
So why don't we apply the same principle to helping trans candidates get into judicial, state legislative seats, and large city council ones?
The reason is because state political party orgs look for congressional candidates who are large city council members, state legislators, and judges.
Many of those candidates tend to be elected county wide or city wide. That establishes for the parties and the people who fund heir campaigns their electoral viability while giving them experience in crafting legislation and providing constituent services at a local level.
In order for us to speed up the day when one of our own stands on the House floor making a speech about our issues and many others on C-SPAN, we'll have to dig into our pockets and purses to help provide the financial support necessary to give them the opportunity to serve us in the first place.And it goes without saying what else you'll need to do to make that happen as well. Register to vote and participate in every election.
