Representative Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.), started her term by making a wonderfully inclusive statement just outside her Capitol Hill office door. The newly elected Congressperson hung a transgender pride flag in the hallway outside of her office in Washington, DC. The flag appears next to the U.S. flag and Virginia’s state flag.
Wexton confirmed that the trans pride flag was an intentional choice in a statement to NBC News:
"This is personal for me. We're talking about my family and friends. I want everyone in the trans community to know that they are welcome and loved even in the face of this administration and its attacks on who they are."
Interestingly, Wexton isn’t the very first to hang a trans pride flag by her door. As noted by Morgan Brinlee at Bustle, back in 2016, former California Rep. Mike Honda hung a trans pride flag outside two of his offices, in connection with support of his openly trans grandchild.
As told by The Washingtonian, Wexton is the aunt to a transgender child. "The trans community has been under attack," she told The Washingtonian in regards to the trans pride flag. "I wanted to show my solidarity because we are talking about my friends and family."
She also tweeted about her decision:
Virginia state delegate Danica Roem (the first transgender person elected to state legislature) also tweeted and thanked Wexton:
This new Congress is the most diverse in some important ways. They’re the biggest ever class of incoming female lawmakers, and within that, there are even more milestones. For example, Sharice Davids and Deb Haaland are the first Native American women elected. In terms of the LGBTQ community, there are ten new openly queer additions to Congress, including Kyrsten Sinema, the first openly bisexual senator of any state, and Davids, who is the first openly LGBTQ Congress member from Kansas.
"I didn’t think putting it up would be a big deal, but I've received a huge outpouring of support and appreciation from the LGBT community in the past two days," Wexton explained to NBC News. "We’ve been receiving messages from across the country and they've been telling me how much it means to them to see that in the halls of Congress."
There has never been an openly transgender person elected into Congress, though Christine Hallquist (D, VT) did win the Vermont primary, and became the first openly transgender nominee for governor for a major party just this year.