Meet the Transgender Candidates That Made Election History Last Night

From Harper's BAZAAR

While many races have yet to be decided, including the much-anticipated presidential election results, at least five transgender candidates have already decisively made political history.

According to the LGBTQ Victory Fund, an organization that endeavors to increase the number of openly LGBTQ elected officials in the U.S., the number of transgender people currently serving in state legislatures is in the single digits, making Tuesday’s wins all the more extraordinary. There could be even more gains in LGBTQ political representation to come, however, as a handful of other transgender candidates are running for office this election season, including Madeline Eden of Texas and Gerri Cannon of New Hampshire. As results trickle in, the number of out transgender state legislators could more than double, per the the LGBTQ Victory Fund. Here’s a look at some of the groundbreaking wins from the 2020 elections.

Sarah McBride

Sarah McBride, a Democratic LGBTQ activist, won the Delaware State Senate race and in so doing has become the first openly transgender state senator and the country's highest-ranking transgender official.

"I hope tonight shows an LGBTQ kid that our democracy is big enough for them, too," McBride tweeted last night after news outlets called the election. "As Delaware continues to face the Covid crisis, it's time to get to work to invest in the policies that will make a difference for working families."

This isn't McBride's first time making political history. McBride, 30, made headlines as an undergraduate at American University when she stepped down as the school's student body president and came out as trans in its newspaper. She also became the first openly transgender person to work in the White House as an intern for President Barack Obama's administration, per The New York Times. And in 2016, McBride took the stage at the Democratic National Convention, becoming the first transgender person to speak at a national party's convention.

McBride, who defeated Republican Steve Washington, will represent Delaware's 1st district. She has previously served as the national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest LGBTQ civil rights group, which congratulated her on the win.

"Congratulations to our very own @SarahEMcBride on becoming the first openly transgender state senator nationwide and first trans member of Delaware's Legislature! We're so proud of you for this historic win," the organization tweeted.

Taylor Small

Twenty-six-year-old Taylor Small became the first openly transgender person to be elected to the Vermont legislature last night. Small, who ran as both a Democrat and Progressive, will represent the Chittenden 6-7 district along with Democrat Hal Colston.

"With and 43% and 41% of the vote respectively in Winooski, Hal Colston and I will be headed to Montpelier!" Small tweeted. "Thank you, everyone!"

Small, who is currently the director of the Health & Wellness program at the Pride Center of Vermont, is "committed to community building and youth empowerment" and has "a clear passion and drive to support the larger LGBTQ+ community of Vermont," according to her bio on the center's website.

She graduated from the University of Vermont in 2016 with a bachelor’s degree in Human Development & Family Studies and a minor in Gender Identity and Sexuality Studies. In addition to her work planning programming to increase LGBTQ visibility in Vermont, she also has a drag persona named Nikki Champagne. Small, as Champagne, has participated in Drag Queen Story Hour in Vermont libraries in an effort to create "safe queer spaces."

"One belief I hold about Vermont is that since it's such a rural state, it's difficult for folks outside the urban center, the greater Burlington area, to find safe queer spaces to just celebrate our lives, or to have a space to be in community—especially because surprisingly, Vermont does not have a dedicated queer bar in the entire state," Small told Them magazine.

Stephanie Byers

Stephanie Byers, a former public school teacher and a member of the Chickasaw Nation, emerged victorious against her Republican opponent, Cyndi Howerton, becoming Kansas's first elected transgender official.

"For a lot of folks, if Kansas, the big red Republican state, can elect a trans person to a state legislator, the doors open up in a lot of other places for people," Byers, 57, told The Wichita Eagle. "And it helps those people who are transgender to reinforce that they are people who matter, they are people who are important and they're people who can be successful in their lives."

Byers decided to run for state legislature in 2019 upon retiring from teaching after nearly three decades, per CNN. She was named National Educator of the Year by GLSEN, an organization dedicated to ending discrimination, bullying, and harassment against LGBTQ students, in 2018. Byers and her wife, Lori Haas, helm a diversity consulting company called Gender.Training, which works to educate communities about gender identity.

Brianna Titone

Representative Brianna Titone, Colorado's first transgender legislator, is projected to win reelection to the state's House of Representatives.

Titone grew up in the Hudson Valley region of New York and has held various positions in her professional life, including working as a volunteer firefighter, web application developer, and substitute teacher. But her career as a geologist led her to move to Colorado, according to her website.

In 2016, she entered the political arena by joining and subsequently serving as secretary and treasurer of the Jefferson County LGBTQ+ Caucus. The following year she announced her run for the Colorado House of Representatives and narrowly flipped a Republican seat in 2018. Her path to success hasn't been easy. Titone has routinely been subject to harassment because of her gender identity and was targeted with anti-LGBTQ campaign ads during her reelection campaign, per Colorado Public Radio.

"In 2018 nobody expected me to win so I wasn't a threat to them," Titone, who ran on a platform championing climate action, educational opportunity, and LGBTQ+ rights, recently told the outlet. "That's why there were no attacks."

Yet Titone nonetheless emerged victorious and shared a picture of her and members of her team via Twitter after the race was called.

Lisa Bunker

Democratic representative Lisa Bunker is as known for her public service as she is for her writing. The legislator, who was recently reelected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives, is the author of two books starring transgender characters Felix Yz and Zenobia July, which were published in 2017 and 2019 respectively.

Before her careers as a novelist and politician, Bunker worked in noncommercial broadcasting for 30 years, where she had a vested interest in telling stories about people who are often underrepresented in mainstream media, according to the LGBTQ Victory Fund.

Bunker will continue to represent New Hampshire's 18th Rockingham County district, which includes the city of Exeter.

Several other LGBTQ candidates broke ground in their states, including Mauree Turner, who became the first nonbinary legislator in U.S. history after winning the election for State House in Oklahoma's 88th district Tuesday.

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