Rosemary Ketchum has made LGBTQ HERstory: last week she won a seat on the Wheeling City Council, making her the first openly transgender elected official in West Virginia.
"We ran a really, really close campaign with our competitors, but we were able to run a grassroots campaign that, despite the obstacles of COVID, we were able to win," the councilwoman-elect told Cheddar on Tuesday.
Ketchum's victory came after a tight non-partisan race in which she defeated her opponent by just 15 votes. When Ketchum takes office on July 1, she will be one of only 27 transgender elected officials in the United States, according to Victory Fund.
Even though she has a few weeks before she's sworn in, Ketchum said she is already getting the ball rolling on issues she wants to tackle in office.
"Already, I am meeting with constituents to tour spaces that need to be rehabilitated. I've spoken to communities that are vulnerable and need assistance and need a platform and a stage to speak," Ketchum said.
Just a week after Ketchum's win, the larger LGBTQ community won a decisive victory from the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court ruled that under existing civil rights law, LGBTQ workers are protected from job discrimination, meaning gay and transgender employees cannot be fired based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
"This is an incredibly powerful and meaningful ruling by [the Supreme Court]," Ketchum continued. "Truthfully, I wasn't confident that this Court would be thoughtful around this issue and I was very excited that they decided to vote in favor of this and that the majority opinion was written by Justice Gorsuch."
Justice Neil Gorsuch, known as a conservative member of the bench, was President Donald Trump's first nominee to the Supreme Court. He, along with Chief Justice John Roberts, another Republican nominee, joined the Court's more liberal contingent to deliver the 6-3 ruling.
