Trans woman makes history as Democrats’ Senate nominee in Utah
Misty Snow is the first out trans nominee of either major party for Congress.
Utah Democrats voted for Snow as their party’s nominee for Senate on Tuesday, June 28, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.
“A lot of people have told me whether I win or lose, I’m already making a difference just by running,” said Snow, who began living openly as a woman in 2014.
Snow will face off against conservative Senator Mike Lee in the conservative state of Utah in November.
The 30-year-old, who currently works as a cashier at a grocery store, defeated conservative Democrat Jonathan Swinton 59.5 percent to 40.5 percent in the returns.
“There are some that claim that Utah is not ready for a candidate like me, but I strongly disagree,” Snow writes on her website.
“Utah is not only ready but in desperate need of a Senator exactly like me. We cannot wait for others to give us equality. We have to claim equality for ourselves,” she adds.
Earlier this year, a hate crime bill was defeated in Utah – after the powerful Mormon Church claimed that it would harm ‘religious freedom’.
The Hate Crimes Amendments bill was voted down in the Republican-dominated state legislature.
The bill was fairly standard hate crime legislation, expanding the field of protected characteristics from “religion, ancestry, national origin or ethnicity” to “ancestry, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, national origin, race, religion, or sexual orientation“.
Despite simply protecting people based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the same way that religion is already protected, the dominant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is based in Utah, strongly opposed the legislation.
