The year is almost done with my Friends of TMP. What a year we’ve had, filled with fear, sorrow and bullies. Now more than ever we need some hope and inspiration. I must thank our Friends of TMP, for whom these past 2 years this list would not have been possible. So many have written, re shared, re tweeted our old top 20 listings and requesting a return of TMP’s year end top 20.
There were many reasons I slowly backed away from writing, being involved in our community. Besides the normal personal life, the past years we have all suffered the negative energy from this particular White House, seen the division it has forced it’s way into our country and even at times in our own community. Celebrating Unity had never been so hard as it’s been under the current Fake administration.
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, it was common to hear, “the virus is the great equalizer.” However, this crisis quickly illuminated the deep inequities in obtaining access to the necessary building blocks of health. This is especially true for our Transgender and Non-Binary (TGNB) community, we have been uniquely affected by the pandemic in several ways, including risk of exposure to the virus and its adverse outcomes, delays in access to gender-affirming care, and diminished access to social support, which is crucial to protecting against the effects of stigma and discrimination. Notably, these challenges are occurring alongside numerous legal and interpersonal challenges and attacks on transgender rights.
Maybe the only blessing that we can claim from this year is how it brought Unity back to our community. While the world braced itself against Covid, trans communities around the globe found themselves again being unheard.
Once again as often the case, it has been up to us to bring trans stories to the table, and take care of our own. So many of us did this year. For that part alone, our Top 20 is back, and hoping to do our lil part in spreading some joy, hope and inspiration to our Trans fam everywhere.
Here’s to our siblings that gave us the most hope and inspiration this year, but as in every year, just living your truth is inspiration to us all. In 2021, live you truth, unapologetically.
Dr. Rachel Levine
Dr. Rachel Levine, serves as Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Health, under the current Gov. Tom Wolf. Throughout this year of the Covid-19 pandemic, she has been a tirelessly courageous voice for the health of not only those of Pennsylvania, but a familiar face that all Americans have grown to trust during this crisis.
She regularly appears on television to reassure residents and provide them with updates and health guidelines. “Stay home, stay calm, and stay safe,” Levine advised Pennsylvanians during one of these daily briefings. Her briefings have also gone beyond the keystone state for those across the country without rational leadership.
Levine, a Jewish American, served her fellowship at the prestigious Mount Saini Hospital in NYC, before moving to Pennsylvania. Levine has served as a board member of Equality Pennsylvania. She continues to be an inspiration to many transgender people around the world thru her efforts, no more profound and needed than this year.
Most sadly, thru this time of tragedy that affects every American’s life; despite race, gender, orientation or religion, hate still rears it’s ugly head at someone fighting to save even that haters life. We urge our community and readers to stay vigilant in our support of DR. Rachel Levine.
Thank you Dr. Rachel Levine for your efforts to ensure the safety of so many Americans.
Indya Moore
How many more could be more inspiring than Mrs. Santa these days? Indya Moore grab the hearts of so many, even outside of the trans community by announcing the Trans-Santa Project.
In a year we needed the most boost of hope, activist and star of FX’s Pose Indya Moore is focused on giving back some of that hope.
Along with friends Kyle Lasky, Chase Strangio, and Pidgeon Pagonis, Moore has launched Trans-Santa, a new holiday gifting initiative that ensures trans and nonbinary youth in need experience the spirit of the season. Rather than simply asking for donations, the Tran-Santa official Instagram account features hundreds of letters penned by trans youth, revealing their Christmas wish lists. From there, donors can click the link in bio that leads to a Target registry for each individual child.
Moore says the initiative was conceptualized after experiencing extreme exhaustion from such a devastating year within the trans community. The goal is to make sure that as many kids as possible are able to smile come Christmas morning after finding presents under their trees from their secret Tran-Santas.
Not only do she continue to inspire us with her role as Angel on FX’s Pose, but showing us all how we can make a difference in each and every trans life, together.
Sarah McBride
Sarah McBride, is one of our trans siblings we will continue to see often on our lists. She continues to push the bar for all in our community. Most recently, she became the nation’s first person who publicly identifies as transgender to serve as a state senator, after winning 2020’s Nov 3rd, election in Delaware. Becoming the highest elected Trans politician in America.
McBride, is a former spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign and the president of the Human Rights Campaign, Alphonso David said of her, ” Mcbride, made history not just for herself but for our entire community. She gives a voice to the marginalized as a representative and an advocate, this victory, the first of what I expect to be many in her career, shows that any person can achieve their dream, no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation.”
Sarah McBride, first appeared on our list in 2016, after a passionate and first speech of it’s kind to a National Political Convention, as our most inspiring trans person.
Retired Commander Shawn Kelly
Recently our newly elected President Joe R. Biden named Transgender Military veteran, Shawn Kelly, to his transition team. Not only inspiring in her own right as a former Commander in the Navy defending our country honorably, but this announcement sent cheers throughout a trans community that has endured relentless attacks by current Fake President #DiaperDon.
As a retired commander in the U.S. Navy, Kelly became one of the first trans people to receive a presidential appointment when President Barack Obama made her a member of the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service in January 2017, during his final weeks in office. She’s also worked for the Department of Transportation and the Department of Defense, according to her bio for Out in National Security, a networking group for LGBTQ people in national security. Kelly has served as the vice president for the organization.
Stephanie Byers
Byers, is a 57 year old retired high school teacher that felt passionately about the direction of her country and state of Kansas, so she ran.
She ran and won, becoming the first trans person to serve in the Kansas legislature, also making her the first Trans-Native American to be elected to any state legislature.
A true inspiration of diversity she discussed in a recent podcast with Wichita’s BizTalk with Bill Roy.
Stephanie Byers is a member of the Chickasaw Nation, graduated from Oklahoma Christian University with a Bachelor of Music Education in 1986 and later Kansas State University with a Master of Music in 2015.
“We’ve made history here,” Byers, 57, told her supporters after her projected win.
“We’ve done something in Kansas most people thought would never happen, and we did it with really no push-back, by just focusing on the issues.”
“For me, being transgender is just another aspect of who I am,” she told the Wichita ABC affiliate last year. “I am also a member of the Chikasaw Nation. I ride a motorcycle. I’m a musician. I have a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education.
“These are all just things that make a part of who I am,” she said. “It’s not what totally defines me.”
Andrea Jenkins
Andrea Jenkins is an American policy aide, politician, writer, performance artist, poet, and transgender activist. She is known for being the first black openly transgender woman elected to public office in the United States, serving since January 2018 on the Minneapolis City Council.
This year during the protest over the senseless taking of George Ford’s life, all eyes were on Minneapolis. This was the first time for many outside of Minnesota and the trans community, to hear of Andrea Jenkins. She will shine for all of us that are marginalized when she said during the beginnings of the protest, “the government is still adjusting to the situation, but is handling it, in the best way that we can given all of the chaos, all of the unrest, all of the anger and pain in this community.”
She spoke and then sung Amazing Grace, while the eyes of the world watched, and our community knew her shared pain. She inspired us all.
Phillipe Cunningham
Cunningham, shares with Jenkins, as well on the city council of Minneapolis. He was the first out trans man of color elected to office in the United States in 2017.
Councilman Cunningham serves as Chair of the Minneapolis City Council’s Public Health and Safety committee and is the lead Councilmember for the city’s transforming community safety work. Prior to being elected and unseating a 50- year family political dynasty in 2017, Councilman Cunningham served in former Mayor Betsy Hodges’ administration as her Senior Policy Aide for education, racial equity, and LGBTQ+ rights.
In an interview with the Windy City Times, Cunningham expressed his outrage over the killing of George Floyd saying, “I navigate the world being seen as a Black man and am treated as such. When I saw the video, a ton of trauma came up and I was so angry. I was angry as a Black man in America, and I was angry as a city councilmember.”
“The other three officers ,on the scene, should also be arrested and charged and convicted. As elected officials, we are calling for Governor Tim Walz, to take authority over the case, and that attorney general have prosecutorial authority. These officers should be held accountable.” Cunningham said to Windy City Times.
Angelica Ross
Angelica Ross, is the only person to consistently make it to our list. Miss Ross, is forever growing as an actress from FX’s Pose to American Horror Story 1884 and the much awaited season 10 of AHS. I for one I’m awaiting the new must watch season. Yet for those who only know the actress, Angelica Ross has been a role mode, advocate, business woman determined that has empowered so many in the trans community.
From her first podcast at MissRoss, to her YouTube collaboration with Jen Richards in ‘Her Story‘, to her amazing work as founder and President of TransTech, Angelica Ross has inspired and set an amazing example in our community. As well as the undisputed hardest working trans person on this planet, I think we can all agree. How does she do it? With grace, class…and advocacy for her fellow siblings in trans culture.
Angelica Ross maybe one, if not the most powerful voices this year in our community. Most recently, she’s using that voice in her latest project to call for representation of transgender people to be taken seriously.
“For me, as a Black trans woman, I just had to learn how to navigate the world myself,” Ross said, before explaining how she has used those lessons to fuel a life mission that helps others in the same position.
“Coming up in a time where trans people were relegated to very marginalized spaces… it was a moment for me as a trans person to start to become visible, while at the same time being in an environment that was very demeaning at times,” Ross said. “Valuations on trans lives used to come from outside of our community, not from within ourselves.”
Rosemary Ketchum
You maybe seeing a pattern. In this heated 2020 election politics took second stage to Covid. This year we seen more trans, non-binary and other LGBTQ candidates elected to offices across the country than ever before. None seem to have took us by shock as did the election of Rosemary Ketchum of West Virginia. WV, by far is the reddest state and the most pro-Trump state in America. Also the state lags severely in all indicators for diversity of any kind. Wheeling ranks 16th in diversity among the largest cities in West Virginia. Making Rosemary Ketchum’s election to City Council even that much more inspiring to many in even the most rural and disadvantaged areas of the country.
On June the 9th 2020, Rosemary was elected to City Council of Wheeling WV, and among only one of 27 out trans elected officials in America according to the LGBTQ Victory Fund.
Amiyah Scott
Amiyah Scott, is one of the stars of Lee Daniels creation, Star. She has been working diligently to hone her craft. First as a model, a video vixen and briefly a part on Atlanta Housewives. It was her short stint on the Housewives’ series that made her the darling of the trans community, by refusing to be typecast as the typical trans joke relief.
It was this integrity that led to her biggest role ever, as the transgender daughter of Queen Latifah’s role in Star. Not since Laverne Cox in ‘Orange is the New Black‘, has a role been giving to a transgender woman on television, and acting in an honest portrayal of life as a transgender woman. It seems this will only the beginning of one our community’s beloved actresses.
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Danica Roem
In 2017, Danica Roem became the first transgender person elected and to serve openly in State Legislature after her mid-term election win in Virginia’s 13th District in the House of Delegates. Her win in 2018 broke the ground and served as a prediction of what’s to come.
After the 2016 Russian hacked election, Trump waged a war on the trans community. One of their biggest voice boxes against LGBT rights was Rep. Bob Marshall, a 13th term incumbent, (can we say term limits please) who ran his campaign trying to use Roem’s gender identity against her. On a conservative radio show in September, Marshall said Roem “clearly is a male,” calling her “he” and saying her behavior “goes against the laws of nature and nature’s God.”
This tactic from a not so well knowledgeable Bible interpreter, backed fired in the most beautiful way. Roem won 54% of the vote against Del. Bob Marshall.
Roem found financial backing from the Democratic Party, LGBT groups, and the Breakthrough Fund — a political action committee run by transgender activists and tailored specifically to elect transgender people to office. It launched with $60,000 to spend in four races, including Roem’s, according to the group’s co-chair, Hayden Mora.
Mauree Turner
This year was extra special, and inspiring for many in the Trans community. The first ever Gender Non-Binary person elected to office. Turner is an American politician and community organizer. They are a member-elect of the Oklahoma House of Representatives. Turner is the first publicly non-binary U.S. state lawmaker and the first Muslim member of the Oklahoma Legislature. They previously served as a board member of the Council on American–Islamic Relations and led criminal justice reform initiatives with the American Civil Liberties Union.
Being a non-binary person of color who was raised in a religiously mixed Baptist and Muslim household, Mauree knows the value of diversity, and being represented. Their election in red state OK, shows the need, and in fact the demand for diversity in representation throughout America. Like Ketchum in West Virginia, these were two elections shocked, and inspired the community considering the odds they faced.
The 27-year-old Democrat defeated Republican Kelly Barlean with more than 71 percent of votes, according to results from the Oklahoma State Election Board. They will represent Oklahoma’s 88th Congressional District when they enter the state House in January.
Turner, who identifies as nonbinary and uses both they/she as pronouns, received a slew of high-profile endorsements, including one from progressive lawmaker Ilhan Omar.
Omar is one of the first two Muslim women — along with Rashida Tlaib — to serve in Congress.
Former Democratic presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg also endorsed Turner’s campaign.
On Tuesday night, Turner told supporters expressed how grateful they were on Twitter, posting an image that read: “The real work begins now.”
Taylor Small
Taylor Small is an American politician. She was elected to the Vermont House of Representatives in the 2020 general election after the incumbent Diana Gonzalez retired and will be the state’s first openly transgender legislator, and the fifth in the nation. She ran on both the Democratic ticket and Vermont Progressive Party ticket and won with 41% of the vote.
Small, who is currently the director of the Health and Wellness program at the Pride Center of Vermont, is part of the “rainbow wave” of victories for LGBTQ candidates around the country. The number of out LGBTQ state legislators increased from 161 this year to 175 who will be in office in 2021.
Taylor Small is conscious of her role as a trailblazer and what her victory means for other LGBTQ people. “My goal,” says Small, “is now that the door is open, I’m going to hold it open for those who are yet to come.”
She went on to say “Being the first means being that representation. and being that guiding light. In a lot of ways I don’t see it as a historical moment for myself, but more of a historical moment for the community.”
Small decided to run for the Vermont House after one of Chittenden 6-7’s current representative, Diana Gonzalez – Vermont’s first out woman of color in the state legislature – announced her decision to retire after her term. In fact, Gonzalez called Small and encouraged her to run.
“She reached out and said, you are doing all of this work in the community,” said Small, “You’re creating space for folks to come together…I think you’d be an amazing role model in the state legislature.”
Joshua Query
Joshua Query is an American politician from Manchester, New Hampshire who has served as a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives since 2018. They represent the Hillsborough 16th District as a member of the Democratic Party. Query identifies as genderqueer, and uses they/them pronouns.
Query was endorsed by former President Barack Obama and the NH Stonewall Democrats where Joshua Query serves as vice-chair. They also serves as Chair of the LGBTQ+ Legislative Caucus, and the regional Vice-Chair of the DNC LGBTQ Advisory Board.
. Lisa Bunker
Lisa Bunker is an Author and politician, who was elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives in the 2018 elections. She represents the Rockingham 18th District as a member of the Democratic Party.
Prior to her election to the legislature, Bunker was program director of a community radio station in Portland, Maine. In 2017 she published a middle grade science fiction novel Felix Yz about a boy fused with an alien and the risky procedure to separate them. Her second middle grade novel, Zenobia July, was released in 2019 and is about a young trans girl finally living as herself and solving a cyber mystery. Both titles are published by Penguin Random House.
Bunker ran for re-election to the New Hampshire House of Representatives to represent Rockingham 18. She won in the general election on November 3rd, 2020.
Lisa Bunker ran her campaign on defending voter rights, and giving a voice to the most marginalized in New Hampshire.
Petra De Sutter
De Sutter, is now the highest-ranking transgender leader in the world, after becoming Belgium’s Deputy Prime Minister. Notably, and rightfully, her gender identity was hardly mentioned in Europe’s postelection headlines.
The Belgium gynecologists and politician who ran and won under the Groen party in the government of Prime Minister Alexander De Croo . In this capacity, she oversees Belgium’s public administration and public enterprises. De Sutter was previously a Member of the European Parliament from 2019 until 2020. She has also worked as professor of genecology at Ghent University, head of the Department of Reproductive Medicine at Ghent University Hospital (UZ Gent). She is the first transgender minister in Europe.
“I was forty when I decided to fully become the woman that I always were and because of this decision I lost colleagues, people I knew and even friends,” she said in an interview published to her website.
“Not everybody has had the luck in life that I had, in being accepted in my working environment, being accepted by my partner and love. In fact, very few people in my situation had this luck,” she said. “This is why I need to do something, for those who lacked this luck. I have a very strong feel of justice and find it so unjust that people in the world suffer simply because of who they want to be,” she added.
Prior to her swearing-in ceremony, De Sutter said she was “incredibly grateful for the confidence I have received from my party.”
“Now I can do whatever it takes to relaunch our country and work on a new future for all Belgians together with that government,” She tweeted in French Oct. 1st, 2020
TS Madison
Where would we be at the end of 2020 without the laughter and wisdom of TS Madison also known as Maddie, an entertainer, entrepreneur and LGBT activist. She has become our community’s most popular internet personality and has spoken out on human rights relating to the LGBT community. She has also recorded an EP and has written an autobiography.
The outspoken 42 year old, Miami born, comedian has served up tons of wisdom, laughter and a voice to the so many trans women of color that are rarely heard from in the community. Entertaining us through her TS Maddion TV Web Series, with ‘TS Madion After Dark‘ for those hardcore conversations, to her more tame early morning ‘Maddie in The Morning Show‘. Looking for those deep interviews, Maddie’s got you covered with ‘The Queens Court’ and ‘The Madison Chronicles‘ or sit back, relax and learn to cook with a lil gossip time with ‘Bish Let’s Dish‘. All will make you laugh, contemplate the state of our community.
2020, has been hard on everyone, but trans community, many already suffering from depression and anxiety, this year has been especially hard. TS Madison, was and is the hope, the laughter and smiles we all needed on the daily to remember we are not alone. Inspiring hope and joy, is the greatest inspiration of them all.
Rihanna Ferra Sanchez
The need for a more powerful voice in politics is not isolated to the United States. On every continent, the political voice of Transgender people has never been louder. Regardless what side you are on, our community from coast to coast, is saying loud and clear, ‘Enough is Enough,’ even in highly homo/transphobic Honduras.
The Diversity Movement in Resistance, a Honduran advocacy group, 268 LGBT people have been reported killed since the 2009 coup. Honduran law also bans marriage and adoption for same-sex couples.
LGBT people in the Central American country — as in many countries throughout Latin America — have historically faced discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and expression. The country’s LGBT rights movement and its leaders have nevertheless sought to open the political process to LGBT candidates.
Rihanna Ferrera ran for office in 2017 and since has lent her voice to eliminating the stigma of transgender representation in Central America. . None of the 12 LGBT candidates won the seats they were seeking, but the legacy and inspiration of women like Rihanna Ferrera Sanchez will undoubtedly be felt throughout Central America for decades to come.
Most recently Ferrera has spoken out for the countless transgender immigrants seeking refuge in America.
Staying in the country is itself a risk, which is why trans women are migrating to the United States and elsewhere in huge numbers.
“In the United States, trans people can have some respect,” Ferrera Sanchez says. “They can work, marry, they have options, they can have a life, even though, there is discrimination.”
But, she adds, those privileges don’t preclude a desire to be treated humanely by immigration officials in the US. A record of neglect and sexual abuse of transgender migrants in New Mexico detention facilities and elsewhere has become a rallying point for activists like Ferrera Sanchez across the country and even the world.
Victoria Kolakowski
Kolakowski is an American lawyer, and, since January 2011, judge of the Alameda County Superior Court. Kolakowski is the first openly transgender person to serve as a trail court judge of general jurisdiction in the United States, the first elected to a judgeship, and the first to serve as any type of judge in California.
She earned a Master of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering from Tulane University in 1987 and a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from University of New Orleans in 1990
Before she was elected with 51% of the vote to her opponent’s 48% on November 2, 2010, Kolakowski served as an administrative law judge with the California Public Utilities Commission for four years. She was co-chair of the Bay Area Transgender Law Association from 1996 to 2000, and has been a member of the National Association of Women Judges since 2006.
Kolakowski was president of the International Association of LGBT Judges from 2015-2017, and the first transgender person to serve as president of the organization.
Jennifer Pritzker
Jennifer Pritzker is among a small group of billionaires and spouses of billionaires who wrote six-figure checks to two joint fundraising committees supporting Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee in the final weeks of October, according to a review of records filed with the Federal Election Commission last week. Her total contributions to Biden and the DNC to $249,000 and $25,000 to the Libertarian National Committee.
While Pritzker joined the earned the notorious reputation in the trans community, shared by few like Caitlyn Jenner, in 2016 by supporting Donald Trump, after the four years of attacks by Trump on transgender issues could have lead to her decision to change her support, though it is unofficial her known reasons.
Pritzker is an American investor, philanthropist, and member of the Pritzker family. She retired as a lieutenant colonel from the United States Army in 2001, and was later made an honorary Colonel in the Illinois Army National Guard. Founder of the Tawani Foundation in 1995, Tawani Enterprises in 1996, and the Pritzker Military Library in 2003, Pritzker has been devoted to civic applications of inherited and accrued wealth, including significant donations to broaden understanding and support for “citizen soldiers.”
In August 2013, Pritzker released a statement to individuals associated with two business and philanthropic organizations that subsequently received wide media coverage, indicating the change from “J.N.” to “Jennifer Natalya” to reflect her status as a transgender woman, making her the first and only openly transgender billionaire.
Regardless of her pass support, coming forward to stand against the tyranny many transgender people faced under the Trump Administration, she gave support to hope and a better future for countless trans people through her act in supporting Biden this year, and hopefully inspire many trans people who are financially able in the future to place their money and support behind candidates that would support their community.
IN MEMORIAM OF MONICA ROBERTS
This year was full of loss, but none felt so strongly as the passing of community legend, Monica Roberts.
Respected Journalist, blogger, advocate, friend and support system for nearly every advocate in our community passed this passed October the 5th.
“A proud unapologetic Black trans woman speaking truth to power and discussing the world around her” is how Ms. Roberts described herself and her award winning blog Transgriot.
On TransGriot, she celebrated Breanna Sinclairé, a transgender opera singer who performed the national anthem at baseball games, and wrote about Raquel Willis, the former executive editor of Out magazine. She covered issues surrounding transgender rights and, in a blog post one month before her death, expressed support for Mia Mason, a transgender woman who is running for Congress in Maryland’s First District against Andy Harris, the incumbent. In that article, Ms. Roberts offered a capsule history of the transgender community and the world of politics, compiling a list of every transgender person worldwide ever elected to serve in a national legislatures.
Yet, Monica was much more. She was a friend, a support system for so many including me and this blog since my first post. Most of our she was our biggest inspiration and though the fight without her seems that much harder, I know together with Unity and lifting each other up we will not only honor Monica, but genderations of Trans to come.
Inspire to be inspired….forever remembering your name Moni.
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