We did great, 7 Transgender candidates elected to various offices.
Danica Roem, Virginia (Virginia House of Delegates) , Gerri Cannon, New Hampshire (Somersworth School Board), Andrea Jenkins, Minnesota (Minneapolis City Council),
Stephe Koontz, Georgia (Doraville City Council), Phillipe Cunningham, Minnesota (Minneapolis City Council), Lisa Middleton, California (Palm Springs City Council), Tyler Titus, Pennsylvania (Erie School Board)
Steve Bannon - Britebart propagandist and Anti-LGBT perveyour.
But we can not stop here and think we are done, we are not. We have now come to the attention of political forces that want us gone. 2018 will be a much harder battle.
When I came out publicly I was contacted by a small, scrappy organization dedicated to creating political power for Trans people and people with trans friendly positions.
That group is the TransUnited Fund. They asked me to join them and I did. In theses last 10 months I have watched the superhuman efforts of a very few individuals make amazing differences in our political landscape. They fought the hate group ADF and won 3 school board seats in Illinois last May.
Through their BREAKTHROUGH Fund they threw everything they had supporting Andrea Jenkins, Philippe Cunningham, Kristen Bowden and Danica Roem. They also threw support to a dozen others.
They had a 75% success rate on the 4 primary candidates and had a positive effect on the others.
Net Result: 7 newly elected openly Transgender officials in the US.
My role is small, just advice really. The hard work is being done by a very few people who somehow manage to put out the work of dozens.
But nothing is free. These people have to eat, campaigns cost money, lots of money. They have beaten $millions of dollars of campaign money provided by the big hate groups campaigning against their candidate with a few $thousand, that is how good they are. But they have to have those dollars.
If you felt a sense of pride, joy or hopefulness by the November 2017 election results, and you want that again in 2018, Donate.
I know I'm asking for your hard earned dollars, I know you struggle to get by. But what would you pay to make sure your job is safe, or your home? LGBTQ people can be fired or evicted in most of the US just for being LGBTQ. The only way to fix this is to get the right people in office, and the only way to do that is to have a strong group supporting the right candidates. Trans United Fund(and its BreakThrough Fund) has proven itself to be that group.
Give, please.
Jess Herbst, board member, Trans United Fund (c4)