Rosemary Ketchum became West Virginia's first openly transgender lawmaker when she was elected to the Wheeling City Council in 2020
When Rosemary Ketchum gets introduced as the first openly transgender person to win elective office in West Virginia, there's often a shocked look that comes across people's faces. “Folks will be like, ‘How did that happen?’ As if it's like I won the lottery or solved a Rubik's Cube in front of them or something,” she said. 'They think it’s magic.' To her, it doesn't feel like magic. But in some ways, she can understand their surprise.
“I didn’t walk up to a door, and say like, ‘Oh, this person has a Trump sign, they’re going to hate me.’” Wheeling is the seat of Ohio County, where 38% of voters registered as Republicans in 2023, compared with 34% registered Democrats, according to state data. City council positions are nonpartisan. Ketchum has some constituents who have either never met a transgender person before — or the idea of gender nonconformity makes them uncomfortable.
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