Meet America's (Shockingly Small) Pool of Trans Elected Officials

Althea Garrison, Massachusetts lawmaker
A smear campaign was used against Garrison, a Massachusetts state legislator outed as trans two days after her 1992 election. The outing came via a vicious Boston Herald reporter named Eric Fehrnstrom, who later became an aide and political strategist for Mitt Romney's failed 2012 presidential bid. Fehrnstrom's stories about Garrison sunk her political career. Years later, Fehrnstrom appeared proud of his achievements, writing in Boston magazine, "In my trade, politics were never personal. Hell, people were rarely people — they were ducks in a shooting gallery."