by Sarah Blow, Community News Service
Two years after Taylor Small’s run for office, she looks back on her journey to being the first openly transgender lawmaker in Vermont history.
Small wasn’t planning on getting into politics at the young age of 25 and made the decision to run for office only a day after a phone call from then-incumbent Diana Gonzalez.
“She called to say she was planning on stepping down from her position and asked if I’d ever thought about running,” Small said.
Small responded by saying she’d think about it and get back to her sometime the following week while Gonzalez had other plans.
“She said ‘How about tomorrow?’ so in a very nice way she was telling me you have 24 hours,” Small said.
In those 24 hours Small consulted her closest friends and family and ultimately made the decision to run. She hasn’t looked back since.
“I have found just a deep love for policy work and especially representing Winooski in the statehouse,” Small said.
Gonzalez later served as Small’s treasurer during her campaign.
Small’s election to the Vermont House of Representatives made history. She is one of eight openly trans lawmakers elected in the United States during the 2020 elections and is dedicated to representing the Winooski and the LGBTQIA communities.
There is one bill in particular that Small is excited to have sponsored this year: a way for Vermonters to amend their birth certificates to accurately represent their gender identity.
“One thing that people might not know is that if you’re looking to amend your gender marker on your birth certificate it’s actually a complicated process,” Small said.
This process requires court orders, letters from psychiatrists and medical care providers as well as a lot of time and money, she said.
Small has collaborated with the LGBTQIA Alliance of Vermont and the Department of Health to write the bill. It would also allow individuals to use a gender X marker or nonspecific gender marker, similar to the option for driver’s licenses.
Small is hopeful that the bill will be passed and believes it will benefit many Vermonters navigating the process of amending their birth certificates.
Categories: Legislation
Sorry, this is a mental illness and indeed was classified as one by the American Psychiatric Association. Can we also change our parent’s names, our ethnicity, the date on the birth certificate too? I mean, I personally “identify” as being much, much younger.
This is sheer insanity, everyone knows it, & many are just going along with it.
DNA CANNOT be altered. And THAT is SCIENCE, leftists! Not Science Fiction, as you prefer.
Science only counts in Global warming and covid Other than those two it dosen’t matter
Many are going along with it, because they are in fear of the leftist loonies
Your a sink or a faucet, deal with it you don’t really get to choose!
Put mentally and emotionally disturbed people in govt. positions and you’ll get mentally & emotionally disturbed laws as the new norm…
Just because I identify as being handsome most people can see and decide if that’s true. In the picture here, in this article I can see a person who identifies as a woman and I can clearly see that this is not a woman. By calling him her or her him it does not change the facts of the biology and DNA that a person is born with. If we wish to enable this to continue, where else will it lead. I recently read an article about a (sick) teacher who brought a kitty litter box to class for her students that identified as Furies. I’m not kidding! It is not possible to amend a person’s gender. If a man decides to cut off certain male parts, that does not make him a woman. Now, I’m all for freedom. If this man wants to act and dress like a woman, I could care less. When he tries to change society or encourage children under the age of majority to change something that can’t be changed or propose laws such as this one I care a lot. The legislators have no god given authority to decide or encourage policies that go against common sense and science. Then again if you live in Vermont you are encouraged to follow whatever science these enlightened woke nincompoops say is science but in reality is nonsense.
He was born a man and still is a man. His birth certificate is a record of that birth. Feelings should not be allowed to supercede facts.
All those poor people we locked up for claiming to be Napoleon. They were born Napoleon. They were always Napoleon. We should make it a crime to deny any of them the dignity of being treated like the Napoleon they are.
As someone pointed out on Dr.Phil when you die and they dig up your bones 100 years from now, no matter what it says on your birth certificate, they can determine your true sex.
To quote The “G” man (G. Gordon Liddy) nothing we do here is really that important, in the end, “we’re all food for worms”.
Here we go again. Gender dysphoria is a real condition thats very difficult for those that go through it. It is a mental condition a physiologist or therapist can help treat. Intersexed is a rare condition where a child is born with abnormal genitalia, often indistinguishable. Transsexuals are people who have gone through genitalia surgery that changes their penis to a vulva or vice versa in addition to alternative sex hormones. Transgender is a made up term that means a man with a penis wants to be called and identified as a woman or a woman with a vulva wants to be called a man. There is absolutely no science behind it, and in my view, us a way for people to marginalize themselves if they choose. Dems like marginalized people because they feel it gives them more moral authority. Its also an easy way for people following the left’s narrative to move from oppressor to oppressed class. They are creating incentives for people to become marginalized whether through language like transgender or critical race theory or illegal aliens or their homeless industrial complex. And now theyre putting it in schools suggesting to your child that they may have been born in the wrong body. Sad times. Truth speakers are being persecuted.
Your co-worker may identify as a frog and demand he’s addressed as “ribit”. If you dont comply, youre an ignorant bigot mistreating a marginalized individual.
ITS A GIRL ITS A BOY ITS A FLYING PLANE
LIBERALISM NEED TO GO BYE-BYE PERIOD FOLKS!!
The phenomenon of creating versions of what is biological fact for millenia is nothing but grandstanding tomfoolery. The same side-show act is climate change which is debunked with historical documented records. Normalizing what is abnormal doesn’t make it normal. However, these ill-advised fools have bullied their way upon a platform to tell us what is normal. Enough. We cannot allow these people anymore attention or consideration. Humanity is not going to survive listening or supporting this ludicrous behavior any further.
I identify as being a Martian. Take me to your mentally diminished leader !
Born a male or a female, you are what you are! And will always be. No matter what artificial or superficial changes can be superimposed on your body you are what you are. No matter what you say you are, you still are what you are. Birth certificates don’t come with an eraser!
In the famous words of Austin Powers: “That’s a man, baby”.