Trans Folks Won Major Victories in These Key States - INTO
Winning

Trans Folks Won Major Victories in These Key States

Henry Giardina

It’s the morning after a confusing, nail-bitingly close election that’s still far from being called in several key states. However, with the long-feared “red wave” failing to manifest, queer and trans folks have plenty to be thankful for.

These midterms gave us a series of exciting firsts across the board.

In Montana, we got the first trans woman legislator in the state’s history: Congratulations to Zooey Zephyr!

In Arkansas, Democratic Justice of the Peace Evelyn Ríos Stafford kept her historic seat:

In Kansas, Governor Laura Kelly will continue to fight against anti-trans measures in her state:

And in Nevada, a measure to protect the rights of trans and queer individuals passed, making any forthcoming anti-trans measures that much easier to defeat:

In Loudoun County, Virginia, Erika R. Ogedegbe will fight for the rights of trans students on the Leeburg School Board:

Trans scientist and activist Brianna Titone won reelection in Colorado: she remains the state’s first openly-trans state legislator:

And Minnesota state representative Alicia Kozlowski became the state’s first nonbinary candidate in history:

Minnesota also got its first openly-trans legislator in state representative Leigh Finke:

All in all, it was a night full of wins for the queer and trans community. We still have a long fight ahead of us, and our wins will put us at the center of even fiercer efforts to curtail our rights across the country: Tennessee has already started with a call to criminalize public drag shows.

But make no mistake: we’ll keep fighting, and winning.

Henry Giardina (he/they) is the editor of INTO. He lives in Los Angeles. Past publications include the New York Times, The Believer, The New Yorker, The Paris Review Daily, The Atlantic, Film Comment, and Gizmodo. He is @punkgroucho on Twitter.

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