06.24.14
It's Trans vs. Gay in This Maryland Election
Gideon Resnick
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/24/it-s-trans-vs-gay-in-this-maryland-election.htmlDana Beyer is trying to become the first trans woman in Maryland's state senate—by unseating the first openly gay state senator.
It's 2014 and in blue state America, two candidates can argue about which one is "gayer" than the other. This is the case in Maryland, where Dana Beyer, a trans woman, is trying to unseat incumbent openly gay state senator Richard Madaleno.
Beyer is a former eye surgeon. She's met Michelle Obama, who she describes as "down to earth." And she's potentially going to be the first transgender woman serving in a state legislative position in Maryland's history. (The first woman in the United States to hold this honor is Althea Garrison, who served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in the early '90s.)
Breathless and verbose, Beyer says she doesn't dwell on her gender identity as a tenet of her political mission, despite—or perhaps because of—her official job title as executive director of Gender Rights Maryland. Rather, she alleges that Madaleno has made it a point of heated contention throughout the campaign. In some respects, as Beyer has acknowledged herself, she follows in the footsteps of his own history, as Madaleno was the first openly gay state senator in Maryland.
