Around New England

Two Transgender Representatives About To Join New Hampshire Legislature

December 24, 2018

Two biological men who identify as women plan to join the New Hampshire House of Representatives in January 2019 — and they’ll make up half of the openly transgender state legislators in the nation.

State representative-elect Gerri Cannon (D-Somersworth) plans to file a bill that would allow transgender people to change the sex listed on their birth certificates.

“However, that’s not why I’m there,” Cannon said in an interview with SeacoastOnline.com.

Cannon cited reaction to a bill banning therapy designed to change sexual orientation or gender identity as a spur to running for office.

“People weren’t being treated with respect, including their families. We had bills on conversion therapy. When I listened to people fighting against it, it just bothered me. So, I said, you know, I can add a voice here. And a more intelligent voice,” Cannon said, according to Seacoast Online.

The other transgender state representative-elect is Lisa Bunker (D-Exeter).

A district in Virginia elected the first openly transgender state legislator in the country in 2017. A district in Colorado elected an openly transgender candidate for the state legislature there in November 2018.

The first time an openly transgender person was ever elected to a state legislature occurred in Nashua, New Hampshire in 2012. But when it became publicly known that the candidate had failed to disclose felony convictions for credit card fraud and tampering with evidence, as required by state law, the candidate resigned the seat before taking it up.