Andrea Jenkins makes history as first trans person to serve as president of U.S. city council

Andrea Jenkins rewrote history books yet again this week after she was named president of the Minneapolis City Council. The vote makes Jenkins the first trans person ever to serve as a city council president in the United States.

Monday’s vote was unanimous: Jenkins received all 13 votes from her fellow councilmembers, who lauded her as a unifying force able to bring together moderates and progressives on key issues. These include rent stabilization and the continued fallout from the 2020 murder of George Floyd, which resulted in former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin being sentenced to 22 years in prison.

Floyd’s death was particularly close to home for Jenkins, who was elected to represent his ward in 2017. She vowed in a Monday speech to use her position to “help our community come together, to heal, to understand each other, to really stand in solidarity and allyship with each other,” according to Fox affiliate KMSP. 

“I am confident, working together, we will achieve great things,” she added in comments reported by ABC news station KARE.  

Jenkins’ appointment is just the latest milestone in her storied political career. A former historian for the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project at the University of Minnesota Libraries, her election to the Minneapolis City Council made her the first Black trans woman ever elected to office in the U.S. She remains the only Black trans woman seated on a U.S. city council.

The 60-year-old was not alone in making history: Phillipe Cunningham became America’s first Black trans male office holder after also winning a seat on the Minnesota City Council in 2017. Cunningham lost re-election in November, making Jenkins the council’s sole remaining trans representative.

LGBTQ2S+ groups celebrated Jenkins’ appointment as a sign that trans political leaders are continuing to make progress in the U.S., despite some setbacks.

“The whole of Minneapolis will benefit from the leadership that Councillor Jenkins has delivered since she was first elected in 2017,” said JoDee Winterhof, senior vice president of policy and political affairs for the non-profit Human Rights Campaign (HRC), in a statement. “Councillor Jenkins’s reputation as a tireless advocate, her dedication to public service and her efficacy in fighting on behalf of those on the margins of society have been recognized and reaffirmed by her peers on the council.” 

Jenkins partnered with HRC on its pledge to end violence against Black and brown transgender women, a 2020 campaign calling on local leaders to address the epidemic of homicides affecting the U.S. trans community. More than 51 trans Americans lost their lives to violence in 2021—a record number—and the vast majority of victims were trans women of colour.

“Change comes from the grassroots up,” Jenkins said in a statement at the time. “Transgender and gender nonconforming folks represent the most marginalized members of our community, we must include their voice if we are to achieve true and sustainable change.”

But as trans political power grows in the U.S., Jenkins acknowledged in her Monday remarks that the 2021 elections expanded representation on Minneapolis City Council in a variety of ways. For the first time in the history of Minnesota’s largest metropolitan area, a majority of council members are people of colour. Seven are women, including newly-elected vice president Linea Palmisano.

“We represent a diversity of thought, of ideas and solutions to the most pressing issues of our time,” Jenkins said, per the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. “We have a whole lot of work to do.”