Sarah McBride tweeted: “We did it. We won the general election. Thank you.” (File)
Washington, United States:
Democratic candidates from the U.S. states of Delaware and Vermont made history Tuesday when they became the first openly transgender lawmakers in their states.
Sarah McBride, 30, became Delaware’s first trans senator, garnering 86 percent of the vote in the state’s First Senate District. She is also the first openly trans state senator in the United States and the country’s top trans public servant.
“We did it. We won the general election. Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she tweeted Tuesday evening.
“I hope tonight shows an LGBTQ kid that our democracy is big enough for them too.”
Further north in Vermont, Taylor Small, 26, became the state’s first transgender representative, with 43% and 41% of the vote in her two districts.
“5th trans legislator of the nation!” she tweeted.
Their victories come just a few years after Democrat Danica Roem became the first openly trans lawmaker in the United States. Roem was elected to the Virginia state assembly in 2017.
In 2018, Vermont Democrat Christine Hallquist became the first openly transgender person to be appointed governor by a major party in the United States.
The Victory Fund, a political action committee focused on increasing the number of openly LGBTQ elected officials in the United States, praised Small on Twitter, writing, “History is made!
The group also praised McBride: In a statement posted online, Fund chief Annise Parker called McBride’s victory a “powerful reminder that voters are increasingly rejecting bigotry policies in favor of candidates who defend equity and equality “.
Four openly trans people are currently serving in state legislatures, according to the Victory Fund.
(This story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
