CA: Will Seal Beach Voters Elect OC's First Openly Transgender City Council Member?
s newly elected city council members across Orange County start to get comfortable in their seats on the dais, Seal Beach voters are taking to the ballot again in a run-off election that could result in a transgender person being sworn into office for the first time in OC.
Stephanie Wade – a former infantry officer in the Marine Corps – running to represent the city’s third district could soon become the first, openly transgender woman to win office in Orange County.
“There’s no doubt that there are people that don’t want me to be elected, because I’m trans but that’s not why I ran. I love Seal Beach and I happen to have the skills to make it better,” Wade said, adding that she has gone to all the council meetings for over a year.
Wade said one of the reasons she is running is to address the constant flooding happening in her city that will worsen with climate change.
“I saw a need, and I started talking to the city council and I didn’t think there was a lot of response,” she said.
“The city hasn’t done a lot to reach out for federal funds into the Inflation Reduction Act or the bipartisan infrastructure bill and I think we should be hiring a grant writer to get those monies because our infrastructure is inadequate to meet current demands,” she said.
https://voiceofoc.org/2023/01/will-seal-beach-voters-elect-ocs-first-openly-transgender-city-council-member/