How West Virginia's 1st Transgender Elected Official Is Influencing Local Politics

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(Photo) Rosemary Ketchum became West Virginia’s first openly transgender lawmaker when she was elected to the Wheeling City Council. Now, she’s running for mayor of the city of around 26,000 in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains
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- 'How West Virginia’s first transgender elected official is influencing local politics,' AP News, May 10, 2024.

WHEELING, W.Va. (AP) — When Rosemary Ketchum gets introduced as the first openly transgender person to win elective office in West Virginia, there’s often a shocked look that comes across people’s faces. “Folks will be like, ‘How did that happen?’ As if it’s like I won the lottery or solved a Rubik’s Cube in front of them or something,” she said. “They think it’s magic.” To her, it doesn’t feel like magic. But in some ways, she can understand their surprise.

Out of the handful of transgender officials in the U.S., only a few were elected in similarly rural, GOP-controlled states. Ketchum, 29, is one of them. And next week, she could be elected again — this time as mayor of Wheeling, a former coal and steel production hub that’s about 60 miles (97 kilometers) outside Pittsburgh. Growing up, she said she saw businesses shutter, and people struggle to find housing and mental health support amid the opioid epidemic.

Her spirit is optimistic though, and she often comes back to a memory of first encountering “the friendly city” motto of Wheeling on a welcome sign. I didn’t run for city council to make history — I ran to make a difference in my community,” she said, of her motivation to run. Wheeling is a city of 26,000 residents with a unique place in West Virginia history. It’s nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, along the Ohio River in an area that split from Virginia and the Confederacy in 1863.

More than a century later, a group portrait hangs in Wheeling’s city hall. Ketchum is impossible to miss: Standing next to seven men in suits, she is wearing a red dress and black heels, and has platinum blonde hair. She stands out in meetings too, with her painted-red nails and laptop adorned with a Taylor Swift sticker. At a recent council meeting, she asked questions about pending water and sewer projects, thanked city employees for their work and urged residents exposed to recent flooding to get tetanus shots at the local health department...
https://apnews.com/article/rosemary-ketchum-west-virginia-transgender-mayor-8e6550fc237899795fad6c6e57276824