Stu Rasmussen (September 9, 1948 – November 17, 2021) was an American politician. She became the nation's first openly transgender mayor when she was elected as the mayor of Silverton, Oregon in November 2008.
Stu Rasmussen | |
|---|---|
| Mayor of Silverton, Oregon | |
| In office January 2009 – January 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Ken Hector |
| Succeeded by | Rick Lewis |
| Personal details | |
| Born | September 9, 1948 Silverton, Oregon, U.S. |
| Died | November 17, 2021 (aged 73) Silverton, Oregon, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic (since 1996) |
| Other political affiliations | Independent (before 1996) |
She had previously been elected twice in the 1990s as mayor of Willamette Valley before coming out as transgender. She was also three times a member of the city council. She was assigned male at birth, identified as a man, preferred masculine pronouns, had breast implants, and had a feminine gender expression. She sometimes went by the name Carla Fong.
Rasmussen unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the Oregon House of Representatives in 1994 as an independent, and a seat in the Oregon State Senate in 1996 as a Democrat. She ran for the House again in 1998 as a Democrat, losing with 41% of the vote.
In 2013 a musical about Rasmussen, Stu for Silverton, premiered at Seattle's Intiman Theatre.
Rasmussen, a self-described fiscal conservative and social liberal, served as city councilor until January 2009.
She co-owned Silverton's 1936 Palace Theater, which shows first-run movies, since 1974.
Rasmussen died from prostate cancer on November 17, 2021, at the age of 73.
References
External links
- Stu Rasmussen for Mayor
- "Stu Rasmussen". The Oregon Encyclopedia.
- WNYC Radiolab segment on Stu Rasmussen Archived March 29, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
- Interview with Stu Rasmussen About Being a Transgender Politician Archived February 3, 2013, at archive.today