Skip to content Skip to search

Republish This Story

* Please read before republishing *

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license as long as you follow our republishing guidelines, which require that you credit The 19th and retain our pixel. See our full guidelines for more information.

To republish, simply copy the HTML at right, which includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to The 19th. Have questions? Please email [email protected].

— The Editors

Loading...

Modal Gallery

/
Sign up for our newsletter

Menu

  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships
    • From the Collection

      Changing Child Care

      Illustration of a woman feeding a baby a bottle
      • 1 in 4 parents report being fired for work interruptions due to child care breakdowns

        Chabeli Carrazana · February 2
      • Washington, D.C., offers financial relief to local child care workers

        Orion Rummler · September 20
      • As climate change worsens hurricane season in Louisiana, doulas are ensuring parents can safely feed their babies

        Jessica Kutz · May 5
    • From the Collection

      Next-Gen GOP

      Illustration of a woman riding an elephant
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • A banner year for Republican women

        Amanda Becker · November 11
      • Republican women could double representation in the U.S. House

        Amanda Becker · November 4
    • From the Collection

      On The Rise

      Illustration of three women marching
      • Can Cheri Beasley build a winning coalition in North Carolina?

        Candice Norwood · October 11
      • Los Angeles has never elected a woman mayor. Karen Bass hopes to change that.

        Nadra Nittle · September 8
      • Judge J. Michelle Childs is confirmed to D.C. appeals court

        Candice Norwood · July 20
    • From the Collection

      Pandemic Within a Pandemic

      Illustration of four people marching for Black Lives Matter with coronavirus as the backdrop
      • Some LGBTQ+ people worry that the COVID-19 vaccine will affect HIV medication. It won’t.

        Orion Rummler · November 23
      • Why are more men dying from COVID? It’s a complicated story of nature vs. nurture, researchers say

        Mariel Padilla · September 22
      • Few incarcerated women were released during COVID. The ones who remain have struggled.

        Candice Norwood · August 17
    • From the Collection

      Portraits of a Pandemic

      Illustration of a woman wearing a mask and holding up the coronavirus
      • For family caregivers, COVID is a mental health crisis in the making

        Shefali Luthra · October 8
      • A new database tracks COVID-19’s effects on sex and gender

        Shefali Luthra · September 15
      • Pregnant in a pandemic: The 'perfect storm for a crisis'

        Shefali Luthra · August 25
    • From the Collection

      The 19th Explains

      People walking from many articles to one article where they can get the context they need on an issue.
      • The 19th Explains: What we know about Brittney Griner’s case and what it took to get her home

        Candice Norwood, Katherine Gilyard · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why the Respect for Marriage Act doesn’t codify same-sex marriage rights

        Kate Sosin · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why baby formula is still hard to find months after the shortage

        Mariel Padilla · December 1
    • From the Collection

      The Electability Myth

      Illustration of three women speaking at podiums
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • Stepping in after tragedy: How political wives became widow lawmakers

        Mariel Padilla · May 24
      • Do term limits help women candidates? New York could be a new testing ground

        Barbara Rodriguez · January 11
    • From the Collection

      The Impact of Aging

      A number of older people walking down a path of information.
      • From ballroom dancing to bloodshed, the older AAPI community grapples with gun control

        Nadra Nittle, Mariel Padilla · January 27
      • 'I'm planning on working until the day I die': Older women voters are worried about the future

        Mariel Padilla · June 3
      • Climate change is forcing care workers to act as first responders

        Jessica Kutz · May 31
    • From the Collection

      Voting Rights

      A series of hands reaching for ballots.
      • Connecticut voters approved early voting. Here’s how their new secretary of state wants to make it happen.

        Barbara Rodriguez · February 13
      • Women lawmakers in Minnesota are in the vanguard of the democracy movement

        Barbara Rodriguez · February 3
      • Election workers believe in our system — and want everyone else to, too

        Barbara Rodriguez, Jennifer Gerson · November 8

    View all collections

  • Explore by Topic

    • 19th Polling
    • Abortion
    • Business & Economy
    • Caregiving
    • Coronavirus
    • Education
    • Election 2020
    • Election 2022
    • Election 2024
    • Environment & Climate
    • Health
    • Immigration
    • Inside The 19th
    • Justice
    • LGBTQ+
    • Military
    • Politics
    • Press Release
    • Race
    • Sports
    • Technology

    View All Topics

Home
  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships

We’re an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy. Read our story.

The 19th Represents Summit

Don’t miss our biggest event of 2023!

Register Today

Become a member

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

James Roesener poses for a portrait on the steps of the New Hampshire State House.
James Roesener poses for a portrait on the steps of the New Hampshire State House on November 9, 2022. (Geoff Forester for the Concord Monitor)

Election 2022

New Hampshire’s James Roesener becomes first out transgender man elected to state legislature

Roesener now holds the highest elected office that an out trans man has ever held in this country, according to the Victory Fund.

Orion Rummler

LGBTQ+ Reporter

Orion Rummler headshot

Published

2022-11-09 14:33
2:33
November 9, 2022
pm

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

We’re making sense of the midterms. Subscribe to our daily newsletter for election context and analysis.

New Hampshire Democrat James Roesener on Tuesday became the first out transgender man elected to a state legislature — joining only a handful of trans elected officials across the United States. Roesener now holds the highest elected office that an out trans man has ever held in this country, according to the Victory Fund, which helps LGBTQ+ candidates run for office. 

This was his first campaign, he told The 19th. Two key factors that motivated him to run for office were the need to protect trans kids in his state, and to push for more protections for abortion procedures in New Hampshire. 

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

He says he doesn’t feel too much pressure from his historic position.

“I feel like I’m in the right place,” Roesener said. After announcing his candidacy this summer to represent New Hampshire’s 22nd state House District, Ward 8, Roesener met other local trans men who said they had also considered running for office. Those moments excited him and reaffirmed to him that more trans men do want to run and should take the plunge — even if a lack of representation may still be holding some back.  

“Part of it is a fear that you’re not going to be taken seriously as a trans person or that you’re going to be attacked. And those things, unfortunately, do happen,” he said, noting that he personally did not experience moments of discrimination during his campaign. “But it’s not a reason to shy away from the community that you can build into the change that you can make.”

Roesener, 26, lives in Concord with his wife and cat. A high school graduate, he has volunteered for seven to eight years at the Equality Health Center in Concord, which provides reproductive health services and abortion services to people of all genders and sexualities. 

His priorities as his district’s representative are to support encoding abortion protections into state law, since New Hampshire does not have a state-specific legal basis for the right to an abortion, although the procedure is legal up to 24 weeks after the last menstrual period. Roesener also wants to push to repeal the state’s 24-week restriction. 

  • More Election 2022 coverage
    Maura Healey waves after addressing delegates during the State Democratic Party convention.
  • Massachusetts’ Maura Healey poised to become first lesbian governor in the U.S.
  • With Val Demings’ and Cheri Beasley’s losses, there are still no Black women in the U.S. Senate
  • House, Senate, governor and abortion measures: The 19th’s Election 2022 roundup

He’s concerned about Republicans in his state introducing bills that would affect trans students, like a recently failed bill that would have required school staff to report students who are transgender or questioning their gender identity to their families. Chris Sununu, the state’s Republican governor who just won his reelection bid, opposed that bill, as did the state’s attorney general’s office at the time. 

Part of why advocating for abortion access matters to Roesener is that the issue affects him personally — as it does for other trans men and nonbinary people, who are among the most vulnerable groups affected by the loss of federal abortion protections. Trans people should be able to go through a pregnancy without discrimination, he said, as well as be able to terminate that pregnancy without experiencing discrimination. 

“For me personally, the right to an abortion or to birth control is very important, because I know if I were to become pregnant I would definitely consider suicide,” he said. “I would not be in an OK place … and I don’t want anybody to have to face that.” 

There are currently six trans men holding elected office in the country, per the Victory Fund’s count prior to the midterm elections — while 39 trans women hold elected office, and 11 nonbinary people hold office. 

Kylar Broadus, founder of the Trans People of Color Coalition, is not surprised that so few trans men have been elected into office, due to the broader lack of societal resources and support for them. More support is needed for employment and in medical care, he said, as well as political support, plus support within the LGBTQ+ rights movement. 

“Historically, resources and news about trans men have always been on the back burner,” he said. LGBTQ+ organizations should dedicate more support to trans men, he said, and diversity within the movement should be prioritized — including supporting candidates of color across all gender identities. 

Forty-four of the 56 trans and nonbinary candidates currently holding office are White, per the Victory Fund’s pre-midterms count — which now includes Roesener.

Jamison Green, a former president of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health who has written extensively about the lives of trans men, said over text that he is glad to see Roesener take office, and he hopes more young people will follow suit. 

“I’m very proud and happy to see this young trans man take office,” he said, adding that trans people can appeal to voters by being honest about who they are while not making their transness the focus of their campaign. “Trans men can successfully campaign and win.”

Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said over text that seeing representation of trans people in office sends a positive message to trans students and their families, who have been targeted by a record level of anti-trans state legislation. 

“It’s a reminder that they aren’t alone and that there are other people like them who are accomplishing great things and who are supported by their communities,” he said. 

For Roesener, deciding to run for office meant taking a leap of faith — and he hopes that other trans people, especially trans men, do the same. 

“I think if you have a calling to do it, you should,” he said. 

Explore more stories about the midterms and their impact

From abortion ballot measures to voting and races at the state and federal levels, find out what our reporters have learned about Election 2022.
Read the Latest

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

The 19th Represents Summit

Don’t miss our biggest event of 2023!

Register Today

Become a member

Up Next

Two women volunteers hug each other as they canvass around Lexington, Kentucky.

Election 2022

Kentucky becomes second conservative state to reject anti-abortion amendment this year

Following this summer’s vote in Kansas, the race could strengthen an argument that abortion restrictions are a losing issue, even in conservative states.

Read the Story

The 19th
The 19th is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Our stories are free to republish in accordance with these guidelines.

  • Donate
  • Newsletter
  • Events
  • Search
  • Jobs
  • Fellowships
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Community Guidelines
  • Membership
  • Membership FAQ
  • Major Gifts
  • Sponsorship
  • Privacy
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram