Two openly transgender people are running for positions on Minneapolis' City Council this year.

There’s just not a lot of candidates running yet, and that’s what’s so exciting about Minneapolis. Without endorsing anybody, it is overall a good thing that two trans people have stepped up, and two trans people who at least on paper aren’t unrealistic candidates.

--Mara Keisling, NCTE

Andrea Jenkins is running for the open seat vacated by her former boss, Elizabeth Glidden...the south Minneapolis Eighth Ward. She is currently unopposed.

Jenkins, 55, curates the Transgender Oral History Project at the University of Minnesota.

I think it’s extremely important to be what Laverne Cox calls a possibility model for young trans people. The narrative for a long time for trans people coming out is that you’re going to be relegated to the life of a second-class citizen, that you’re going to be relegated to the shadows, and that you can’t aspire to ‘lofty goals.’ 

--Jenkins

Jenkins, who moved from Chicago to Minneapolis for college and transitioned to female in her 30s, has been a pioneer in Minneapolis government, and she has faced obstacles.

Early in her career as a council aide, she was in the office on a Monday morning and a high-level appointed official — she won’t say who — said it was great to see her that morning because a police officer had said Jenkins had been arrested over the weekend. Jenkins had not been arrested. It had been a normal weekend.

Essentially what they were saying was some transgender person got arrested over the weekend and they just assumed it was me.

--Jemkins

Times change, though.

It’s come from a long life of showing up, honoring my commitments, supporting other people and really building a good track record,” Jenkins said. “It feels good, though. It feels really good, particularly given that I’m black, I’m transgender, and I’m a woman. That’s three strikes against me.

Jenkins said if she is elected she will fight for progress on matters that affect everyone: jobs, housing and access to health care. That work, she said, will help transgender people, who struggle to find employment and affordable housing, and who disproportionately suffer from homelessness..

Phillippe Cunningham is challenging Council President Barb Johnson in the north Minneapolis Fourth Ward.

Cunningham is 29 and transitioned 6 years ago. He is taking a leave from his staff position in the mayor's office.

We’ve never had our voice at the table. Because of the fact that I’m black, queer, trans, it really suits me to represent more people. It’s not just about my experience, it’s about what I’ve learned from my experience. What I’ve learned is, I don’t know everything, and I need to listen.

--Cunningham

Cunningham — who grew up in Streator, Ill., a rural town southwest of Chicago — faces a tough opponent in Johnson, who has been a council member since 1998.

For Cunningham, growing up as a black female was at least as formative as the six years since his transition. He was first called the N-word when he was 5. When he was a junior in high school, a history teacher said that he could never be president, because he was black and female.

Cunningham's political involvement began when he was appointed a member of the Minneapolis Youth Violence Prevention Executive Committee.

I was already very socially conscious as I went into my transition. Having lived 23 years of my life at the crossroads of racism and misogyny, I understood how I can live my values and actually show up with action for justice and solidarity as a black man for black women. It helped open my understanding of how to listen to hear other people.

--Cunningham