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Loading ...Oregon city elects transgender mayor
11.10.2008 4:33pm EST
(Silverton, Oregon) Plenty of politicians reinvent themselves, but few do it quite like Mayor-elect Stu Rasmussen.
Rasmussen has been a fixture in Silverton politics for more than 20 years, and had twice before been mayor of the small city 45 miles south of Portland. Those terms, however, were before Rasmussen began earing dresses and 3-inch heels in public, receiving breast implants and beginning to transitioning.Silverton has made Rasmussen the country’s first openly transgender mayor, according to the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, a group that works to help openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people win elected office.
Rasmussen, 60, unseated incumbent mayor Ken Hector, with whom he had long clashed, by 1,988 votes to 1,512.
Because Rasmussen’s appearance was no secret, the campaign was dominated by policy issues.
“I’ve blackmail-proofed myself,” Rasmussen said.
The story of Rasmussen’s election was first reported by JustOut, a bimonthly publication for Portland’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities.
“Stu never sought this recognition out,” said JustOut reporter Stephen Marc Beaudoin. “He’s interested in doing a great job for the community that he loves. The gender identity thing is just a total backseat thing.”
That comes across when Rasmussen speaks in his decidedly masculine voice.
“I am a dude,” he said. “I am a heterosexual male who appears to be a female.”
His longtime live-in girlfriend, Victoria Sage, told The Oregonian newspaper that she and Rasmussen have been an item for almost 35 years.
In light of other defeats and disappointments this is a fantastic, nearly unbelieveable thing.
Yay for Stu!!!
This one has me puzzled. Usually, a transgender person will say they are a man trapped in a woman’s body, or a woman trapped in a man’s body. A transgender person is one who usually wants to ultimately have a sex change operation to correct their gender. Am I not correct?
Would a biologically born male who is a female trapped in a male body say: “I am a dude. I am a heterosexual male who appears to be a female.”
Is this man not more transvestite than transgender?
Rob, I understand your confusion and will attempt to clarify. Transgender is an umbrella term that includes transsexuals (people who identify with the sex they were not born into), transvestites (cross-dressers), the intersexed (born with ambiguous genitalia), gender queers, drag queens, drag kings, and others. It is my understanding that Stu is a transvestite or cross-dresser. He identifies as a heterosexual male and is not interested in a sex-change so he is not transsexual. However, he has had breast implants, which is more than a classic transvestites would typically do. Keep in mind, the term “transgender” includes the entire spectrum of gender variant people. He is transgender.
In any case, Silverton appears to be a pretty conservative frontier town. This is a great credit to Stu’s abilities and personality and a great credit to the open-minded voters for accepting Stu’s diversity.
As a Silverton resident, I will admit that based on first impression or meeting, Stu may change the tone a little bit, but make no mistake, Stu is just one of many highly talented/educated colorful people that make up the sum of the whole in our town known as Silverton.
We are a successful small town already, yet remain energized towards and even brighter future. As one of the up and coming small town communities whose citizens are clearly of the progressive 21st century, and becoming more so every year, while the visual feeling of Silverton remains that of the loving charm of a small country town by all outward appearances.
Yes, Silverton is seen as a ‘fiscally conservative’ town, but with a substantial ’socially progressive’ leaning. Like all towns, the passing of the torch from one generation to another continues to see the evolution of a much more tolerant ‘live and let live’ approach overall, but as the old beast of prejudice and bigotry slips further and further away, one has to remain diligently aware that the beast of prejudice and bigotry is not dead either… but we all remain optimistic that even this will pass within a generation or two at the most.
Silverton has a core group of people, that continues to grow, all of whom are working together to energize and nuture the ideals of a self-supporting & self-reliant community. Sustainable growth, with a strong movement toward green technologies is a strong focus for a successful future, and Silverton continues to draw and expand our resources with new talent that adds to the promise of a very bright future indeed.
Recently I was entering parts information into an equipment hierarchy data base. One item of support equipment was a connector adapter kit consisting of eight male/female pairs of connectors (RCA-M and RCA-F, BNC-M and BNC-F…etc). This enabled the electronic test equipment to be connected to various radios.
Later on I thought about this. “Hmmm, very interesting. There had to be one of each (male and female) connector adapter for the set to be complete. No gender confusion in the electronics world.”
Suppose an Engineer designs a complete electronics assembly with two subassemblies having physical, electronic and functional distinctions; but which work together to produce one desired result. And the first is connected to the second by a cable terminated with a “male plug,” that plugs into a “female receptacle” in the second subassembly. This allows the circuit to be completed and the right signals to pass from one to the other. “Mating” one male connector with one female connector is normal, and enables the two subassemblies to operate together as one complete assembly.
No matter how good the subassemblies or connectors were as individuals, 2 male or 2 female connectors simply can’t mate and function together or complete the circuit as originally intended by the Engineer.
Likewise, no matter how good they are as individuals (compassionate, positive contributions to society), it is impossible for lesbians or homosexuals to “marry” mate together, or complete the biochemical reaction that produces another generation of males and females, or satisfy our Creator’s requirements. But Jesus Christ, God’s Maintenance Man, is able to repair their hearts and make them normal.
If the Bible is true (and I know it is), God has ZERO TOLERANCE for all aspects of the “Human Rights Movement” in His spiritual Kingdom, both now and in eternity (and so should we in America). God’s hatred for homosexuality is directly proportional to His love for delivering people from homosexuality. Please consider the following pieces of objective evidence:
(1) God created us “male and female,” with functional gender distinctions, for raising children within faithful, normal marriages (Genesis 2:18-24, Matthew 19:4-5, Ephesians 5:21-33).
(2) Negative Scriptures stating the kinds of people God WILL NOT accept into His Kingdom (Lev.18:22-24, Rom.1:18-31;21-3, 1Cor.6:9-10, Gal.5:19-21, and 1John 2:15-17). There may be some religious homosexuals, but there is no such thing as a Christian homosexual, just pretenders (they could easily become Christians if they made the right choice).
(3) Positive Scriptures stating the kind of people God WILL accept into His kingdom (Rom 14:17, 1Cor 6:11, Gal 5:22 and Eph 1:4).
(4) Positive Scriptures describing the complete new birth procedure - how to be delivered from the world and into God’s Kingdom (John 3:3-5, Acts 2:38-42 and 19:1-7).
(5) God’s willingness to reach out with His strong arm of love (John 3:16), and joyfully enter into hearts, and cleanse them from abnormal desires and erotic lusts so they can live the way He created us. If they think they were “born gay” and can’t change, they need to be born again normal.
(6) The joy in heaven when sinners repent and turn away from their sins (Luke 15:7).
(7) The wonderful feelings of relief and joy in our hearts when we receive deliverance from sin, exactly the same way sinners did while the New Testament was being written (1 Peter1:8). The only legitimate “human right” we have, is to live right in God’s sight.
(8) I understand this by personal experience.
Respectful comments and honest questions (without skepticism) are welcome.
Have a wonderful, free American day.
dear mr. sproull, i wonder why you are looking at a gay website. i also am not christian so the fear of going to hell can’t be used to scare this big dyke into submission. have a lovely day.
and bravo for silverton and stu.
Wordnerd,
I was wondering the same thing myself. Come to a gay site to spout on strange theory concerning electronics!!
Sincerely,
James
Charles Sproull Said: “If the Bible is true (and I know it is), God has ZERO TOLERANCE for all aspects of the “Human Rights Movement” in His spiritual Kingdom, both now and in eternity (and so should we in America). God’s hatred for homosexuality is directly proportional to His love for delivering people from homosexuality.”
I have a good feeling that “what you know” didn’t come to you from any sort of thought process, but rather it was brainwashed injto you by someone who did your thinking for you. Just because YOU believe the Bible is all true doesn’t make it so. It is nice to see one of you religous zealots being honest for a change tho and admitting you worship a hateful, and therefore evil, god.