“We have broken through,” Middleton said. Middleton called the elections historic for transgender Americans. In Virginia, a transgender woman, Democrat Danica Roem, unseated an incumbent who sponsored a bill that would have restricted which bathrooms she could use. Middleton, a retired auditor who worked for the State Compensation Insurance Fund, joins at least seven other openly transgender people elected to public office across the country last week, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Rick Zbur, executive director of Equality California, said Palm Springs is the only city council in California comprised of all LGBTQ people. And while the Human Rights Campaign, a civil rights organization, doesn’t keep nationwide data on the makeup of city councils, the Palm Springs council is believed to be the first in the country to be entirely LGBTQ.
