Hat tip to this Just Out for getting an interview with what looks to be the country’s first trans-identified Mayor .
Stu Rasmussen was the mayor of Silverton, Oregon in the late 80’s and early 90’s. He’s also ran for state office.
But that was when he looked like a dude .
Now he looks like a lady.
That didn’t stop him from running for office in this small (and some might call small-minded) town.
In his interview with Just Out on Nov. 5, he says he “got bit by the public service bug again” and ran for Silverton City Council in 2004. “And I got elected…boobs and all. I tell people this country has a long and proud history of electing boobs to public office.”
For the Mayor’s race, Just Out indicates Rasmussen won by about 11 percentage points over eight-term incumbent Ken Hector.
First we had the pregnant man in Bend , now the trans mayor in Silverton. Could a trans person end up in the state Capitol in the near future (Pssst….Laura Calvo , can you hear me? Are you ready to run for office?)
UPDATE : Rasmussen took a break this afternoon from a barrage of media calls (Good Morning America is scheduled to interview her tomorrow) to talk with WWire about the election in this town of about 9,500 people.
Rasmussen, whose close friends knew about what he called his “peccadillo” in the 80s before he came out to everybody about a decade ago, says the issues in this campaign were more prosaic than what he looks like.
Among those issues – the town’s growth, which Rasmussen calls “too fast” and municipal spending. Rasmussen, a former worker at Tektronix, owns the local Palace Theater .
Rasmussen – an independent who voted for Obama – realizes the ramifications of the election and seems quite ready with a quip for the national spotlight.
“You’ve got to keep Portland weird, but we’re way beyond you,” joked Rasmussen, who just turned 60.
