Progressive Oregon: Transgender man elected mayor

By April MacIntyre Nov 8, 2008, 17:20 GMT

Stu Rasmussen, city of Silverton official website

The presidential race marked the first elected African-American President in US history.

Oregon has also looked forward and elected a popular man who refused to compromise or hide his transgendered lifestyle.

The small town of Silverton, Oregon elected the first openly transgender mayor in the United States.

CNN reports that Stu Rasmussen served two terms as the Mayor of Silverton in the 1990s not admitting to being transgender.

Now he wears long hair, a skirt and high heels. He has had breast implants, he looks like a woman - but he is a man.

"I identify mostly as a heterosexual male," Rasmussen said. "But I just like to look like a female."

Rasmussen is a genitally fully intact man, with a girlfriend. He tells reporters he always was transgender, but he only "came out" a few years ago.

"Some guys' mid-life crisis is motorcycles or sports cars or climbing mountains or trophy wives or whatever." Rasmussen said his mid-life crisis was quite different. "I always wanted cleavage, so I went out and acquired some."

His decision to be open about his life worried him.

"The first 30 seconds they think, am I in a freak show? Is there a camera behind me? What's going on here?" Rasmussen told NewsChannel 8.

"And then we get down to discussing whatever the issue is - city business or business or whatever - and they figure out this guy's different, but he knows what he's talking about."

The local channel noted the townspeople cared more for Rasmussen's grasp of the important issues.

One voter told the affiliate: "Stu's very devoted to this town."

"He wants to maintain the integrity of Silverton," voter Gail Frassenei said. And she said she isn't sure Rasmussen would be elected anywhere else. "I think it's amazing a small town like this can be so open-minded, to elect someone that's made a life change."

"I'm prejudiced, but I think this is just about the coolest town on Earth," Rasmussen said to reporters.