Minneapolis Elects Transgender Woman To City Council
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Minneapolis has elected a black transgender woman to its city council in what advocacy groups say is a national first.
Andrea Jenkins easily won the race for a south Minneapolis seat Tuesday with roughly 73 percent of the vote. Jenkins spent years as a policy aide to two previous council members in the same ward.
.@andreaforward8 Congrats Andrea Jenkins on your Minneapolis City Council ward 8! The first out transgender woman of color elected to public office in America. pic.twitter.com/dlFbhroFIV
— Meghan Stabler (@MeghanStabler) November 8, 2017
Victory Fund, a group that advocates for LGBT candidates, called Jenkins the first openly transgender woman elected to the city council of a major U.S. city.
She won the same night that Danica Roem became the nation's first openly transgender state lawmaker by winning a Virginia statehouse seat. Roem defeated Bob Marshall, a longtime Republican delegate who sponsored legislation that would have restricted transgender bathroom use.
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