Stu Rasmussen: transgendered mayor gets clothing complaint

July 23, 8:22 AMTransgender & Transsexual Issues ExaminerMatt Kailey

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        Mayor Stu Rasmussen of Silverton, Ore.

Stu Rasmussen is not your typical mayor. But then, he is also not your typical trans person.

Rasmussen, mayor of Silverton, Oregon, and reportedly the first openly transgendered mayor in the United States, expresses his gender as female — with a female hairstyle, clothing, and even breast augmentation — but uses a male pronoun.

“I identify mostly as a heterosexual male,” Rasmussen told KGW of Portland upon his election as mayor last November. “But I just like to look like a female.”

Apparently the people of Silverton were more concerned about what Stu Rasmussen could do for their city than what he looked like or chose to wear, because they elected him.

But now Rasmussen is in hot water with the city for his clothing choices — at least for what he chose to wear to a recent youth leadership training event.

According to Oregon’s Statesman Journal, Brenda Sturdevant, director of the youth program Together, has filed a formal complaint with the Silverton City Council claiming that Rasmussen violated the city council dress code for public figures by wearing high heels, a short skirt, and a revealing halter top to the event.

Rasmussen, who is a board member of Together and was invited to speak at a youth leadership meeting (not at the annual “Celebration of Cultures,” as originally reported) feels that the complaint is unjustified. It will now be up to the Silverton City Council to respond.

Rasmussen may be a puzzle to most non-trans people — and even to many trans people. He does not fit neatly into any of the categories that even trans people have defined for ourselves.

While the majority of crossdressers are heterosexual men with a primarily male identity, most crossdressers do not have breast augmentation or make any physical changes to the body, and most do not live full time in a female gender presentation. Rasmussen does not completely “fit” into this category.

Nor does he reflect what might be considered a “typical” male-to-female transgendered or transsexual person. Most people who would be considered transgendered male-to-females have a female gender identity, either all or part of the time, and most transsexual women — those who were born male but have a female gender identity and have made physical changes to the body and/or live as female full time — use a female name and pronoun.

But part of the freedom of gender expression is the freedom to be exactly who you are, whether or not who you are fits into a neat little category. Stu Rasmussen, by his own definition, is a “heterosexual male” who “like(s) to look like a female.”

While many people might not understand this self-definition, to the people of Silverton, Rasmussen’s qualifications were obviously more important than his appearance.

Where the clothing complaint will lead remains to be seen.