Out Spotlight XXXXVIII

Today's Out Spotlight staying with politics.

Today's Out Spotlight recognizes Stu Rasmussen. He is most likely the "first openly gender fluid, transgender-identified mayor of any American city according to the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, a group that works to help openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people win elected office. Stu Rasmussen was the elected this past Tuesday as the mayor of Silverton, 45 minutes outside of Portland Oregon.

Rasmussen is a 60-year-old native Silvertonian who’s been a small business owner for most of his adult life, and a public servant in his beloved hometown for going on twenty years. He served two consecutive terms as Silverton’s mayor, in 1988 and 1990, when he still dressed exclusively as a male. Tuesday he was elected as dressing exclusively as a female.

Having a self-described gender identity crisis in the mid-90’s, coupled with a series of crippling losses in Oregon state House and Senate races - including losing to the now-notorious anti-gay legislator Marylin Shannon in a 1996 race - forcing Rasmussen to withdraw from public service. He thought his career was over.

Rasmussen realized then that he could express his fluid gender identity with confidence and still be accepted in Silverton. He underwent reconstructive “top surgery” in 2000 on his chest, including breast implants. Rasmussen now says the surgery was transformational for him.

Rasmussen “got bit by the public service bug again” and ran for Silverton City Council in 2004. “And I got elected,” “Boobs and all. I tell people this country has a long and proud history of electing boobs to public office.”


Stu never sought this recognition out," said Stephen Marc Beaudoin a reporter for JustOut, a bimonthly publication for Portland's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities. "He's interested in doing a great job for the community that he loves.


Describing his work as owner of the Palace Theatre, an old-school movie house and quasi performing arts center in downtown Silverton, Rasmussen says “obviously I’m in the entertainment business. I give people something to talk about, like, what sort of shoes is Stu wearing?”

Because Rasmussen's appearance was no secret, the campaign was dominated by policy issues. "I've blackmail-proofed myself," Rasmussen said.

Rasmussen has serious plans and policies in the works for his hometown once he’s inaugurated this January: studying and fixing a major dam in danger of disaster, transportation and downtown business district planning, sewer and water issues, addressing property taxes.

" The gender identity thing is just a total backseat thing." That comes across when Rasmussen speaks in his decidedly masculine voice."I am a dude," he said. "I am a heterosexual male who appears to be a female." His longtime live-in girlfriend, Victoria Sage, told The Oregonian newspaper that she and Rasmussen have been together for almost 35 years.


NorthWest Gender Alliance


The OMG Movie Club Poll is still open today. Give another vote for your favorite movie. Results Monday.



UPDATE 8:22 AM FIRST PRINCE OF PERSIA TRAILER ?!?!??