The 2020 Election season has brought about a number of firsts. In addition to having Kamala Harris elected the first Black and South Asian and woman Vice-President of a major party in the United States, Mauree Turner, a Democrat, made history as the first nonbinary state legislator elected to Congress in history. Turner is a Black, Queer Muslim state legislator representing Oklahoma’s state House 88th district. Kelsie Smith of CNN writes:
“Turner, 27, defeated Republican candidate Kelly Barlean to represent the district, winning about 71% of the votes, according to the Oklahoma State Election Board unofficial results. Her victory comes after beating incumbent Rep. Jason Dunnington in the district’s Democratic primary election in June. Turner identifies as nonbinary, which the National Center for Transgender Equality defines as gender understood as neither male nor female. Turner uses both the they/she as pronouns, according to Turner’s Twitter profile. On Turner’s campaign website, Turner uses she/her.
‘I have a lot of feelings about tonight,’ said Turner in a Twitter post on Tuesday night. ‘But overall, I’m grateful for HD88 granting me this opportunity.’ She posted the tweet with an image saying, ‘The real work begins. The future is now.'”
There are currently four known genderqueer or nonbinary identified elected officials serving in the US and five public LGBTQ elected officials in Oklahoma. Turner is the first nonbinary person to be named to a state legislature.
Read more about Turner at the Victory Fund or CNN.
This post was written by Nsenga K. Burton, Ph.D. Follow Nsenga on Twitter @Ntellectual or The Burton Wire @TheBurtonWire.
