Andrea Jenkins  ( 1961 - )

Andrea Jenkins made history in 2017 when she became the first African American, openly transgender woman elected to public office in the United States. As a politician, poet, activist, and community historian, Jenkins strives to bring “the notion of love into the public discourse.”

Andrea Jenkins was born on May 10, 1961. Assigned male at birth, she grew up with her mother, Shirley Green, one sibling, and two of her cousins in the North Lawndale neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side. Jenkins’s father battled heroin addiction and spent much of her childhood in prison. Shirley worked as an office administrator. Jenkins described being raised by her mother in a “pretty authoritarian” but “very loving” manner with an emphasis on education. She spent every weekend at her grandparents’ house in the Chatham neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. Chatham, a middle-class African American neighborhood, was in stark contrast to Jenkins’s “hard-working and low-income” neighborhood, and she thus says she “experienced all of Chicago from the deep poverty to the striving middle-class Black Chicago.” She was also aware of her family, who had from to Chicago from Alabama as part of the Great migration, history. Those experiences and history “deeply informed [her] life.”

Jenkins spent her childhood participating in Cub Scouts and playing football at Robert Lindblom Math & Science Academy on the South Side. She also loved literature and poetry. She remembered learning “everyone can be a poet” when Gwendolyn Brooks, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet laureate of Illinois, visited her First Grade class. Her early high school mentors included poet Haki Madhubuti, one of the founders of the Black Arts Movement and Third World Press (now the largest independent African American-owned publisher in the U.S.). Jenkins recalled her experience with Madhubuti at 14 really got her involved with “Black history, Black culture, the 1960s Black arts movement” since “Haki was really a believer that you must use poetry for social justice.”

It was a lesson she kept close to her heart as she continued to write poetry that often focuses on the intersection of race, social justice, gender, and sexuality. She has published several acclaimed volumes of poetry, including The T is Not Silent (2015). At the beginning, her own gender identity was “never a subject” of her poetry. “I was thinking about it,” Jenkins said in an interview, “but I would never, at that point in life, express my inner gender identity thoughts in a poem.”

In 1979, Jenkins started at the University of Minnesota, an overwhelmingly white school at the time. She was shocked at the differences in resources and access between white and non-white students. She also experienced racial stereotyping on campus. She lived in male dorms and eventually joined a fraternity. When speaking of these college years, Jenkins said “In many ways a lot of my life was really trying to hide from what I knew to be true inside myself…I knew I was a girl, but I didn’t want people to reject me.” One of her fraternity brothers, her roommate, “outed her;” the fraternity expelled Jenkins from the house and she was forced to return to Chicago since she had no where else to live. When Jenkins told her mom why she was back home, she came out as bisexual (Jenkins still identifies as bisexual). Her mom took her back in, assuming her sexuality was just “a phase.” Jenkins recalled, “I knew at this time I was trans, but again I could just not accept it for myself, and so consequently could not tell my parents or anybody about it.” While in Chicago, she made her first foray into politics by working on Harold Washington’s successful mayoral campaign in 1983, making him the first African American mayor of Chicago.

While in her mid-20s, Jenkins married a woman and had a daughter who remains “the absolute love of [her] life.” She also began work as a vocational counselor for Hennepin County, a role she would have for over a decade. At 30, she divorced her wife and came out as a trans woman. “I just really realized that I [couldn’t] go on any more, hiding the truth from myself. Hiding the truth from those who I love. If I am going to thrive in life, I have to come to grips with who I am, and I have to accept it,” Jenkins said in an interview. While Jenkins began her transition, she also returned to college and finished her B.A. in Human Services from Metropolitan State University at age 38. She went on to complete two more degrees: an M.A. in Community Development from Southern New Hampshire University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Hamline University.

Jenkins’s political career began in 2001 when she served on the successful campaign of Minneapolis City Council Candidate Robert Liligren. She then became one of his staffers. In 2005, City Council member Elizabeth Gidden hired Jenkins as her aide. While working for Gidden, Jenkins won the 2011 Bush Fellowship “dedicated to transgender issues,” helped establish the Transgender Issues Work Group, and organized a City Council summit on transgender equality and the problems facing the transgender community in Minnesota, both in 2014. After 12 years as a Council aide, Jenkins began curating the Transgender Oral History Project at the University of Minnesota’s Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies. A primary focus of her curation is to grow the collection of trans narratives by recording oral histories. In 2015, Jenkins served as the grand marshal of the Twin Cities Pride Parade.

When Giddens decided not to seek reelection in 2016, Jenkins ran for the open seat. She was also motivated to run because of the 2016 presidential election and wanted to make changes around issues of equity in Minneapolis. Jenkins took her mom to the polls, and later said “I do want to just acknowledge the tremendous feeling of voting for oneself, it’s unlike anything you can imagine.” Jenkins won her 2017 election to represent Ward 8 with 73% of the vote. She was one of a few transgender candidates who won their elections during that cycle. Her colleagues in the City Council then elected her Vice President of the Council.

In the Summer of 2020, Jenkins was again thrust into the national spotlight after the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. Floyd was a resident of Jenkins’s districts. In the wake of Floyd’s murder, Jenkins insisted racism was a public health crisis and played a central role in re-examining the funding and structure of Minneapolis’s police department.

In 2022, Jenkins won reelection to the Minneapolis City Council with 86% of the vote. Her colleagues then unanimously made her President of the Council, another historic first for an openly transgender person. With her new mandate, Jenkins wants to bridge gaps in her community, fight for accountability within the city’s police department, and expand access to affordable housing, health care, and living wages. She hopes her public service “serves as an inspiration for other trans and gender-nonconforming people.”

While her jurisdiction may be limited, Jenkins continuously hears from transgender people from all over the country seeking guidance and help. In an interview with The Washington Post, Jenkins said “Transgender people have been here forever…I look forward to more trans people joining me in elected office and all other kinds of leadership roles in our society.”

Works Cited

“About Andrea Jenkins,” City of Minneapolis, https://www.minneapolismn.gov/government/city-council/ward-8/about-andrea-jenkins/

“Andrea Jenkins,” National Black Justice Coalition, https://beenhere.org/2017/05/10/andrea-jenkins/

Brooke Sopelsa, “Andrea Jenkins is First Openly Transgender Black Woman Elected in U.S.” NBC News, November 8, 2017, https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/andrea-jenkins-makes-history-first-openly-black-trans-person-elected-n818966

Madeleine Carlisle, “America’s First Openly Trans City Council President Wants to Heal Minneapolis,” TIME, January 25, 2022, https://time.com/6141967/andrea-jenkins-minneapolis-trans-issues-policing/

“Minneapolis City Council President Andrea Jenkins,” The Takeaway, WYNC Studios, February 4, 2022, https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/takeaway/segments/blackqueerrising-minneapolis-city-council-president-andrea-jenkins

Oliver Laughland, “Andrea Jenkins: the first Black openly transgender woman to hold US public office,” The Guardian, March 11, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/mar/11/andrea-jenkins-first-black-transgender-woman-us-public-office-minneapolis-george-floyd

Tat Bellamy-Walker, “Andrea Jenkins makes history as 1^st openly transgender city council president,” NBC News, Jan 11, 2022, https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/andrea-jenkins-makes-history-1st-openly-transgender-city-council-presi-rcna11829

How to Cite this page

MLA – Rothberg, Emma. “Andrea Jenkins.” National Women’s History Museum, 2022. Date accessed.

Chicago – Rothberg, Emma. “Andrea Jenkins.” National Women’s History Museum. 2022. http://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/andrea-jenkins

Image Credit: "Andrea Jenkins - Minneapolis City Council" by Tony Webster, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Additional Resources

“Andrea Jenkins for Ward 8,” https://www.andrea-jenkins.com/

“Andrea Jenkins Minneapolis Poet,” https://andreajenkins.webs.com/

Erik Tormoen, “Q&A: Andrea Jenkins, Minneapolis’ New City Council President,” Minnesota Monthly, April 14, 2022, https://www.minnesotamonthly.com/lifestyle/people/qa-andrea-jenkins-minneapolis-new-city-council-president/

 

Cecilia Chung  (1965 - )  Cecilia Chung is a groundbreaking advocate for the transgender community and those living with HIV/AIDS. For decades, she has worked on the local, state, and national levels to end the discrimination and violence that her communities face.

Cecilia Chung was born in Hong Kong in 1965. Chung was assigned male at birth and from a young age, she described feeling different and misunderstood in her gender identity, but didn’t know how to express it. In grade school, she realized she was attracted to boys and, as a teenager, thought it meant that she was gay.

Chung immigrated to the U.S. with her parents in 1984. They settled in Los Angeles, but Chung soon moved to San Francisco to attend the City College of San Francisco. She transferred to Golden Gate University and graduated in 1987 with a degree in International Management. After college, she worked in finance and as an interpreter for the Santa Clara County court system. At the age of 22, Chung began her gender transition. Living as her authentic self brought significant challenges for Chung. Her parents opposed her transition and Chung did not speak to them for over three years. She lost her job at in the court system, likely due to her transition, and then became homeless.

Chung turned to sex work in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood in order to survive. She also started using drugs and soon learned that she was HIV positive. But Chung never regretted transitioning. She said that this difficult period in her life "sounds painful, but it's actually more painful to not know who you are. I would rather be really trying hard to survive than to look in the mirror and not see myself." These experiences led Chung to devote her energy to working on behalf of the transgender community and those living with HIV/AIDS.

In 1994, she joined the city’s Transgender Discrimination Task Force, which issued a landmark report on the injustices that trans individuals faced every day. The task force’s efforts led the city to enact several pioneering anti-discrimination policies. She also worked as an HIV test counselor and a counselor for residential facilities, and then as a caseworker for a housing program.

In 1995, two men attempted to sexually assault Chung. She fought back and one of the assailants stabbed her in the arm. She suffered a punctured artery, a severed tendon, and nerve damage. Chung was rushed to the emergency room, where she was joined by her mother, whom the hospital notified of the attack.

Though it took some difficult conversations, Chung and her family reconciled before long. Chung also continued her groundbreaking work as an advocate for transgender rights. She was the first transgender woman and first Asian individual elected to chair the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Celebration. She was also the first transgender woman and first person living openly HIV to lead the San Francisco Human Rights Commission.

Chung joined the Board of the Asian Pacific Islander Wellness Center in 2002 and worked on their mobile HIV testing project for transgender youth. In 2004, Chung served as one of the founding organizers of Trans March, an annual event that now takes place in cities across the country. The following year, she was named the first Deputy Director of the Transgender Law Center and in 2011, Chung served on California’s Civil Rights Enforcement Working Group.

Chung’s advocacy work rose to the national level in 2013 when President Barack Obama appointed her to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. She served two terms on the council, retiring at the end of President Obama’s time in office. In 2015, Chung founded Positively Trans, a network intended to address the stigma and inequities faced by transgender people, particularly people of color, living with HIV. The network is supported by the Transgender Law Center and the Elton John AIDS Foundation and focuses on story-telling, policy lobbying, and leadership development.

Today, Chung is the Director of Evaluation and Strategic Initiatives for the Transgender Law Center, as well as a member of the San Francisco Health Commission. Chung’s long record of public service has been recognized with the Levi Strauss & Co. Pioneer Award; the San Francisco AIDS Foundation Cleve Jones Award; the Human Right Campaign Community Service Award; and as a California State Assembly’s Woman of the Year award, among others. Her life story also inspired a character on the ABC miniseries When We Rise (2017), which documented the history of the LGBTQ+ movement from the 1970s-2010s.

Chung continues to make history as a passionate civil rights advocate and dedicated public servant.

By Mariana Brandman, NWHM Predoctoral Fellow in Women's History

Works Cited

“About Cecilia Chung.” Cecilia Chung.com. Accessed May 26, 2022. http://www.ceciliachung.com/bio

“Cecilia Chung: 2018 Phoenix Award Honoree.” APIQWTC. 2018. Accessed May 26, 2022. https://apiqwtc.org/phoenix-award-honoree/2017-cecilia-chung/

“Cecilia Chung joins the Transgender Law Center team as a Senior Strategist.” Transgender Law Center. Jan. 18, 2013. Accessed May 26, 2022. https://transgenderlawcenter.org/archives/3086

Ford, Olivia G. “This Positive Life: Cecilia Chung on Violence, Gender, Prisons, Family and Healing.” The Body. May 16, 2013. Accessed May 26, 2022. https://www.thebody.com/article/this-positive-life-cecilia-chung-on-violence-gende

Glover, Julian. “'Possibilities are limitless': Trans activist shares journey from homelessness to policy advocacy.” ABC 7 News. June 21, 2021. Accessed May 26, 2022. https://abc7ny.com/cecilia-chung-transgender-law-center-positively-trans-our-america-who-im-meant-to-be/10734669/

Knight, Heather. “Cecilia Chung, transgender health advocate.” SFGate. Jan. 12, 2013. Accessed May 26, 2022. https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Cecilia-Chung-transgender-health-advocate-4189493.php

Pham, Xoai. “Honor Trans Elders: Cecilia Chung Is the Mother We All Wanted.” Autostraddle. May 7, 2020. Accessed May 26, 2022. https://www.autostraddle.com/honor-trans-elders-cecilia-chung-is-the-mother-we-all-wanted/

How to Cite this page

MLA – Brandman, Mariana. “Cecilia Chung.” National Women’s History Museum, 2022. Date accessed.

Chicago – Brandman, Mariana. “Cecilia Chung.” National Women’s History Museum. 2022. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/cecilia-chung

Image Credit: “Cecilia Chung at Trans March San Francisco 20170623-6639.jpg" by Pax Ahimsa Gethen, CC BY-SA 4.0.

 

Current circumstances in this country - and indeed around the world - demand we demonstrate the courage demonstrated by these words of Elie Weisel.  It is certainly easier to offer the encouragement of our words but sit back and let others do the work of protesting.  Now is not the time for that posture. 

Bad things happen when caring people do nothing.  That's at least partially why we're in the mess we're in.  So prepare yourself to stand shoulder to shoulder with other caring people when you are asked to do so.  The survival of our democracy may depend on it.

EDITORS NOTE:  Hans Nordlinger posted these comments on our FaceBook page in response to an appeal to join in the March For Our Lives.  It is, of course, his opinion, but we believe it is well worth the read.

 

I’m a veteran, I spent 43 years in and with combat arms in the military. I hunted for game for 50 years.

I state the foregoing to attest to my experience in knowing the difference between weapons designed to kill lots of people quickly, and weapons designed for killing game and self defense.

I support the 2d amendment.

We must regulate weapons that are capable of wounding and killing lots of people quickly,

Regulation must include,

registration,

background checks,

a permit,

secure storage,

transfers to only a person who has a class III weapons permit.

A federal agency to implement regulate and enforce the law,

A sever set of penalties for violating the law.

I read the law that stopped the unchecked slaughter of people in the 1920s 1930s by weapons capable of wounding and/or killing lots of people quickly, the National Firearms Act of 1934, known as the NFA.

The NFA meets all the requirements to regulate weapons of mass destruction. Penalties for violating the NFA are severe, a $250,000.00 fine and 10 years in federal prison, for the first offense. That penalty applies to anyone who possess, buys, or sells a class III weapon of mass destruction, or violates the act in any way.

After the NFA was enacted, in 1937, class III weapons were turned in, or people went through the process to keep their class III weapons.

The NFA effectively regulated weapons of mass destruction until gun manufacturers developed the AR-15, as a civilian model in the 1960s-70s, a semiautomatic weapon loaded by external quick change high capacity magazines, capable of wounding and killing lots of people quickly, but evaded the NFA.

Since the advent of the AR-15, we have seen the slaughter by semiautomatic weapons loaded by external quick change high capacity magazines for decades.

People want to ban AR-15, or assault rifles.

I don’t use the term, AR-15, or “assault rifle”, because using those terms begs an argument about what is, or is not an assault rifle. The term “ban” raises a 2d amendment issue. The term assault rifle also does not cover the other semiautomatic weapons loaded by external quick change high capacity magazines designed to wound and/or kill lots of people.

I use the term, “semiautomatic weapons loaded by external quick change high capacity magazines”. I know that is a long description, but it describes accurately the weapons being used, to kill lots of people quickly.

Semiautomatic weapons loaded by external quick change high capacity magazines, whether they be handguns, long guns, look like military weapons, or don’t look like military weapons, provide shooters the capability of firing a large number of bullets quickly, replacing the external magazine quickly, and continuing to shoot another magazine of bullets, creating massive numbers of wounded and killed victims.

Semiautomatic pistols have quick change magazines holding 9-14 bullets. A shooter with a semiautomatic pistol loaded with 14 bullets can fire 14 bullets in 7 seconds, reload in three seconds and fire 14 more bullets in 7 seconds, and keep doing that until he runs out of loaded magazines, killing or wounding dozens of people. Semiautomatic hand guns do not have the power or range of a long gun, and do not out gun the police, but are deadly and fire lots of bullets.

Semiautomatic hand guns are used in 77% of mass shootings.

A shooter using a semi automatic rifle loaded by external quick change 30 round magazine can shoot 30 bullets in 20 seconds, change magazines in 3 seconds and shoot 30 more bullets in 20 seconds, and keep up that firepower until he runs out of loaded magazines. Semiautomatic rifles fire high velocity bullets that cause more damaging and fatal wounds, and out gun law enforcement.

Semiautomatic weapons loaded by external quick change high capacity magazines, are not now classified as class III weapons under the NFA.

THE ANSWER IS SIMPLE;

Amend the NFA, and reinstate its original powers

Add semiautomatic weapons loaded by external quick change high capacity magazines to the NFA list of weapons of mass destruction.

Staff and fund the ATF to implement the amended law for all people who now own semiautomatic weapons loaded by external quick change high capacity magazines, register, conduct the background checks, issue permits, inspect storage facilities, enforce the law, and prosecute violators.

To facilitate the program, a buy back program will encourage voluntary turn in of these weapons by those who do not want to go through the process to legally own a class III weapon.

The NFA has worked since 1934, even though it has been weakened by amendments by the republicans.

Criminals and crazies will continue to commit crimes and attacks, however we can regulate the weapons designed to kills lots of people quickly, reduce the deaths, and make sure they don’t out gun the security and law enforcement officers.

We must stop the slaughter, America did it in 1934, we can do it again.

 

Yes! March For Our Lives is marching once again on June 11, 2022. After countless mass shootings and instances of gun violence in our communities, it’s time to take back to the streets and march for our lives. We marched in 2018 after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas in Parkland, Florida, and now we’re headed back to DC. Join us on June 11th in Washington, D.C., or in one of our hundreds of local marches on the same day, across the nation.

We have hundreds of locations nationwide organizing marches, showcasing the breadth of our grassroots movement. We encourage you to go to https://marchforourlives.com/March22/ for a map where can locate a March in your area, and to search on Facebook for an event near you. Facebook is likely the best way to reach out to a local organizer if you have questions about a local event.