Almost exactly one year after President Donald Trump came into power two transgender women have been elected to political office while an Indian Sikh has become a mayor in a major city.
Transgender Virginia politician Danica Roem, a former journalist and singer in a rock band, beat Republican Bob Marshall, who sponsored a bill that would have required transgender people to use bathrooms corresponding with the sex on their birth certificate. Marshall is one of the longest serving and most socially conservative lawmakers.
David Toscano, the Democratic leader in Virginia’s house of delegates, enthused: “It’s historic … It sends a message to politicians everywhere that the politics of bigotry is over.”
The band Cab Ride Home which was founded by Roem, 33, released their debut album, ‘Crash the Gate’ earlier this year, more than a decade after Roem, 33, helped found the group that describes itself as a “drunken thrash metal” band whose “songs are about drinking” and whose shows are “about raging.”
Meanwhile, Andrea Jenkins clinched the ward eight Minneapolis city council seat, becoming the first transgender person to win such a seat in a major city. Jenkins, 56, said she believes her and Roem’s victories are proof many of the nation’s communities won’t succumb to hatred, bigotry or transphobia — and are willing to fight for social justice and equality for all minority groups.
“Transgender people have been here forever, and black transgender people have been here forever,” Jenkins told The Washington Post after her win. “I’m really proud to have achieved that status, and I look forward to more trans people joining me in elected office, and all other kinds of leadership roles in our society.”
Days before the New Jersey elections, anonymous fliers were distributed around Hoboken saying “Don’t let TERRORISM take over our town” featuring a photo of Ravinder Bhalla, wearing the turban that he always wears as a hallmark of his Sikh faith.
Bhalla, a Democrat who has served two terms on the Hoboken City Council, inspired enthusiasm not just in Hoboken but in the nationwide Sikh community of about 200,000 people, which has suffered frequent racist slurs and acts of violence since 9/11 terrorist attacks. People tend to mix up Sikhs with Muslims.
In July this year two Sikh Americans, one 68 and the other 20, were killed in two separate incidents in one week in California. A Sikh man was shot and wounded near Seattle by an attacker who approached him in his driveway and reportedly told him to leave the country, police and media reported.
North of the border in Canada Member of Provincial Parliament of Ontario Canadian Sikh lawyer Jagmeet Singh who holds no seat in the House of Commons so far made history by winning the federal party NDP’s (New Democratic Party) leadership race on the first ballot last month winning over 53 per cent of the vote. He is the first minority member to lead a federal party in Canada.
Harjit Sajjan, 42, a former police officer and veteran of three military deployments to Afghanistan, is now Canada’s defence minister. He is a social media celebrity.
The others are Amarjeet Sohi, sworn in as Canada’s minister of infrastructure; Navdeep Bains, 38, a business school professor who has the portfolio for innovation, science and economic development; and Bardish Chagger, 35, a daughter of Sikh immigrants who was sworn in as minister of small business and tourism. (Pictures: Twitter)
