Trans and Nonbinary Candidates Win in Minnesota and Montana
Clockwise from top left: Leigh Finke, Zooey Zephyr, Alicia Kozlowski, and SJ Howell. Finke, Zephyr, and Howell courtesy LGBTQ Victory Fund; Kozlowski via Facebook.Minnesota and Montana have elected their first transgender state legislators.
Minnesota has also elected its first nonbinary one, and a nonbinary candidate appears headed for victory in Montana as well.Trans woman Leigh Finke was elected to the Minnesota House to represent District 66A, which includes St.
Paul and several suburbs. A Democrat, she bested Republican Trace Johnson 81 percent to 18 percent. The incumbent, Democrat Alice Hausland, retired after three decades in the legislature.“In the last two years, we’ve been seeing just a marked increase in the coordinated attacks against trans people and trans communities in the United States and in Minnesota,” Finke told Twin Cities TV station WCCO. “I just felt like it was absolutely essential to have someone from our community in those rooms.”Finke “is ready to disrupt the status quo and fight for real change on behalf of her community,” Annise Parker, president and CEO of the LGBTQ Victory Fund, which had endorsed her, said in a press release. “From safeguarding abortion rights to addressing societal inequities, she has a vision for the future that voters are clearly enthusiastic about.
Her win is a clear and deafening rebuke to the transphobia currently sweeping our communities and her success will inspire other trans people to step up and run.
