[quote]Eight months after taking office, the mayor of a small town in Texas has come out as transgender.
“As your Mayor I must tell you about something that has been with me since my earliest memories,” New Hope Mayor Jess Herbst wrote in an open letter on the town’s website. “I am Transgender.”
She is believed to be the first openly transgender mayor in Texas, The Texas Observer reported.
Herbst has been documenting her journey on the blog, JessHerbst.com. She told The Huffington Post that the reaction to her news has been overwhelmingly positive.
“I have received emails congratulating me, calling me brave and even one expressing pride in living in a town with a mayor like me,” Herbst said. “I never hoped for more than simple tolerance, the outpouring of support is unprecedented.”
In the open letter to the town, Herbst pointed to the growing number of trans figures in the media, including Olympic gold medalist Caitlyn Jenner and Laverne Cox of “Orange Is The New Black.”
“Society finally has a chance to see and learn about who we are,” she wrote.[/quote]
[url]http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jess-herbst-texas-transgender-mayor_us_58914f6fe4b0522c7d3e0153[/url]
[QUOTE]While the position is traditionally elected, Herbst was selected by the town council last summer after the previous mayor, Johnny Hamm, died while seeking reelection. It was too late to change the ballot, and [B]Hamm won despite being dead.[/B]
Herbst, already the town’s mayor pro tem, was then appointed to complete the mayor’s full term. [/QUOTE]
I laughed more than I should have. Law is weird. This is a pretty stunning revelation though, and I'm a bit confused. I hope we have one or two users who live around New Hope, TX who can tell us more about this person. I'm interested to know what they were like before this announcement; the Huffington Post article is a bit scant on details.
Photo posted on Facebook page. 1977-now
[IMG]http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/9291/production/_93912573_8545d78d-af92-4032-bc6a-72fe55f83a52.jpg[/IMG]
Hunh.
Nothing caught on hellfire.
Does this mean Ted Cruz is a [I]liar?[/I]
[QUOTE=Chonch;51763982]I hope we have one or two users who live around New Hope, TX who can tell us more about this person. [/QUOTE]
Small town is an understatement. I live reasonably close and had never heard of it. It only has 600 people and is basically a neighborhood of McKinney, Texas. From what I can tell they don't even have any sort of public buildings. There's just some houses,a church, and a muffler shop.
The Dallas area is fairly liberal though, so I doubt anyone will make a big deal of it.
As a Texan. I am both happy and surprised that so far she has been given tons of positivity and support. Especially knowing how Texas can be with anything that can be considered "left".
[QUOTE=MissingGlitch;51764040]As a Texan. I am both happy and surprised that so far she has been given tons of positivity and support. Especially knowing how Texas can be with anything that can be considered "left".[/QUOTE]
You can't even finish the word republican in Austin without being carried off by bats.
[QUOTE=27X;51764047]You can't even finish the word republican in Austin without being carried off by bats.[/QUOTE]
Yes the major cities are pretty liberal. I actually have plans to move to Austin because of it. But most of Texas is pretty rural.
I'm quite aware, also Houston isn't terribly liberal except in certain neighborhoods.
[QUOTE=27X;51764055]I'm quite aware, also Houston isn't terribly liberal except in certain neighborhoods.[/QUOTE]
Houston is very liberal I don't know what you're talking about. Harris County voted undeniably blue too iirc
If anything Dallas is slightly more conservative, but there aren't really any cities in Texas that aren't majority blue really. Not to mention Houston is host to so many different backgrounds, the city has so much to offer in terms of culture.
[QUOTE=27X;51764047]You can't even finish the word republican in Austin without being carried off by bats.[/QUOTE]
why bats?
[QUOTE=bitches;51764207]why bats?[/QUOTE]
Austin is somewhat well known for [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_W._Richards_Congress_Avenue_Bridge#Bats"]the bats[/URL].
[QUOTE=bitches;51764207]why bats?[/QUOTE]
the druids that protect austin have bats as their spies and familiars, rather than the common crow
Damn, that's a really stunning transition. I hope she doesn't get trouble for it.
[QUOTE=laserpanda;51764023]Small town is an understatement. I live reasonably close and had never heard of it. It only has 600 people and is basically a neighborhood of McKinney, Texas. From what I can tell they don't even have any sort of public buildings. There's just some houses,a church, and a muffler shop.
The Dallas area is fairly liberal though, so I doubt anyone will make a big deal of it.[/QUOTE]
I'm from McKinney and I've never heard of Hope, I guess it's like Anna or Melissa??
[editline]2nd February 2017[/editline]
oh shit I just looked it up, that's where the quarry lake is, woah
Texas is pretty conservative but we have a massive libertarian population that doesn't really care about sexuality.
[QUOTE=Cructo;51764005]Good on him/her,[/QUOTE]
Just for clarification, it's just "her".
There's a pretty large chunk in high-population areas that are liberal, but a huge chunk of Texas is also very conservative, being in the south + the bible belt.
Don't see it too much around where I'm at in college, it's mostly with slightly older generations that tend to be far more conservative, some coming close to extreme.
As for Republicans, same thing pretty much. A lot of the high-population density areas, in my experience, host a lot more vocal democrats. But Texas houses far more Republicans, especially in rural areas as was mentioned so it's good that support is coming to Herbst.
[t]http://i.imgur.com/qwAn8xr.png[/t]
[QUOTE=27X;51764055]I'm quite aware, also Houston isn't terribly liberal except in certain neighborhoods.[/QUOTE]
I'd say it's about even, Houston is a pretty diverse city.
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