Popsugar – Rosemary Ketchum is the first openly transgender elected official in West Virginia. She is associate director of the Greater Wheeling National Alliance on Mental Illness and serves on the boards of several organizations, including the West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy. Ketchum will begin her first term on the Wheeling City Council on July 1. Follow her on Twitter at @RosemaryKetchum. Read full article here.
I never wanted to run for office. The people who occupied the world of politics didn’t look like me, live like me, or seem to want the same things as me. So, rather than working in politics, I did the next best thing: I became a community organizer. For years, I’ve worked to tackle issues like poverty, mental health, racial justice, and LGBTQ+ equality in West Virginia.
When I’m organizing a protest or rally around injustice, or helping build a platform that will allow people’s voices to be heard, I’m in my element. This work has given me purpose and opportunity, but it has also frustrated me deeply.
