{"id":85230,"date":"2026-08-07T07:26:01","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T11:26:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/?p=85230"},"modified":"2026-08-07T07:26:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T11:26:15","slug":"michigan-nominates-first-trans-woman-for-state-legislature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/michigan-nominates-first-trans-woman-for-state-legislature\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan Nominates First Trans Woman For State Legislature"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From<em> The Guardian:<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">A former megachurch pastor who endured 15 years of conversion practices is set to become the first <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/society\/transgender\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">transgender<\/a>\u00a0member of Michigan\u2019s state legislature after\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.detroitnews.com\/story\/news\/politics\/elections\/2026\/08\/05\/michigan-could-elect-its-first-openly-transgender-state-rep\/91150053007\/?gnt-cfr=1&amp;gca-cat=p&amp;gca-uir=true&amp;gca-epti=z115858p119250l004050c119250e1166xxv115858d--36--b--36--&amp;gca-ft=212&amp;gca-ds=sophi\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">winning a Democratic primary election<\/a>\u00a0on Tuesday.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-x1al2c\" data-gu-name=\"body\">\n<div class=\"dcr-11gq2tx\">\n<div id=\"maincontent\" class=\"dcr-1w2vkyc\">\n<div class=\"article-body-commercial-selector article-body-viewer-selector dcr-ogvvui\">\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.joannawhaley.com\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Joanna Whaley<\/a> comfortably defeated Frank Liberati, a former state representative, and Gary Schlack in the primary for the second district of the Michigan statehouse, a Democratic stronghold.\u00a0Earlier this year Liberati\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/michiganadvance.com\/2026\/04\/30\/downriver-dem-files-complaint-against-primary-opponent-a-trans-woman-over-her-name-on-the-ballot\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">sought to have Whaley disqualified<\/a>\u00a0from the ballot over her name change but the Wayne county clerk\u2019s office\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/michiganadvance.com\/2026\/05\/12\/wayne-county-clerk-rejects-attempt-to-disqualify-candidate-from-primary-ballot-over-her-name-change\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">dismissed the challenge<\/a>, finding that Whaley\u2019s candidate affidavit was legal and proper.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From The Guardian: A former megachurch pastor who endured 15 years of conversion practices is set to become the first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-85230","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-news","7":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85230"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85232,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85230\/revisions\/85232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}