#HouseDistrict88 #candidates push for #diversity in #StateLegislature

Whoever wins will replace the first #nonbinary #state #legislator, Rep. #MaureeTurner.

#Nonbinary #Transgender #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #Oklahoma #Politics #Representation #Culture

https://www.tahlequahdailypress.com/news/oklahoma-watch-house-district-88-candidates-push-for-diversity-in-legislature/article_24b804f6-2a94-11ef-bd2d-074f412551fc.html

Molly Hennessy-Fiske: The lonely, resolute path of #Oklahoma legislator Mauree Turner

"They’re a striking outlier on the floor of the Oklahoma House: the only masked face, the only hijab-covered head, in one of the reddest state capitols in the country.

Rep. Mauree Turner sits at their desk as other legislators chat and work the cavernous Greco-Roman chamber. Conversations hush as a chaplain appears to deliver the invocation on this early spring morning. Quoting Philippians and Jesus, he urges lawmakers to care for themselves so that they can best serve the people.

…

Being the nation’s first Black, Muslim, nonbinary state lawmaker, let alone the first in Oklahoma, was never going to be easy. Turner realized that from the start. Yet it took time to grasp how isolating, debilitating and toxic the legislature would become for them. And how, one day, they would reach their limit."

#giftarticle #maureeturner #lgbtq #nonbinary
https://wapo.st/45p9NG5

Recently, Dems have struggled to produce populist folk hero narratives.

Luckily for all of us, these censure-happy GOP led legislatures seem happy to do the job for them.

#ZooeyZephyr #TennesseeThree #MaureeTurner

2020
#Oklahoma's #MaureeTurner will be the first #nonbinary    
#statelegislator in the U.S.

27-year-old Oklahoma City native Mauree Turner is the first openly nonbinary official elected to a state legislature in the U.S., as well as the first Muslim to serve in Oklahoma's legislature. Turner joined CBSN's Lana Zak to discuss their plans for the future.

https://invidious.namazso.eu/watch?v=8erQvjugNt0