Transgender Mayor Elected in Silverton, OR

(Posted by guest blogger Megan Habermann, Assistant Director for Campus Activities)
As a native Oregonian I am pleased to announce to the Vassar community that one of our small towns has elected the first openly transgender mayor!

Silverton, OR with a population of less than 10,000 has elected Stu Rasmussen, a 60-year-old self identified heterosexual male, who has had breast implant surgery and lives his daily life dressed as a woman. Rasmussen is a life long resident of the rural community, and won based on his platforms to keep Silverton small (for reference one of their main issues was traffic lights).

I grew up approximately 40 minutes from Silverton in Oregon City, and my only memories of the town were going there for football play-offs, and being killed by their farm boys. My mom teaches about halfway from our home and Silverton in a community where their student body president was sent death threats for being a young, gay, black man. I am the first to profile anything south of my town as being “hick” and “backwards” because incidents of hate were not uncommon. It brings me a special joy to say that I am now wrong about Silverton.

Oregon still has a long way to go on LGBTQ rights, but this is definitely a step in the right direction. I’m glad Stu is a proud resident of Silverton, and wasn’t chased out to SE Portland once he came out.

Transgendered mayor

Check out related articles here and here!