Kansas makes history, elects retired Wichita teacher as its first transgender legislator
She didn’t set out to make history.
But when people she admired started to persuade Stephanie Byers that her voice could make a difference, the retired North High School band teacher decided to take a shot at winning the District 86 Kansas House seat left vacant by Democrat Jim Ward’s run for the Kansas Senate.
Maybe, she thought, she could finally do something with the years’ worth of frustration she felt when state legislators would try to fix budget woes by cutting money from schools.
“I didn’t really have much time outside of my class to be able to stand up and say, ‘Hey, this isn’t right,’” said, Byers, 57. “And so when I retired, that’s one of the things that kind of percolated around in my head.”
But it appears that Byers has, in fact, made history and become the first transgender legislator elected not only in Kansas but in the entire Midwest. In unofficial results, Byers had earned 54.4 % of the vote to her Republican challenger Cyndi Howerton’s 45.6 percent, with Byers receiving 486 more votes. The results are preliminary, as ballots postmarked by Tuesday and provisional ballots have yet to be counted.
“We’ve made history here,” Byers said on Tuesday evening of the early results. “We’ve done something in Kansas most people thought would never happen, and we did it with really no push-back, by just focusing on the issues.”
The Eagle was not able to reach Howerton late on Tuesday.
Only four out trans people have ever been elected to serve in state legislatures, and they all are still in office, including Virginia Delegate Danica Roem, who in 2017 became the first out trans person to win a state legislative seat. Depending on the outcome of Tuesday’s election, five more could be added, including Byers in Kansas as well as candidates in Delaware, Texas, Wisconsin and Vermont.
And although her gender identity is not her main focus, she said, she understands why it’s meaningful, especially for members of the trans community who have ever felt marginalized or had their identities discredited.
“For a lot of folks, if Kansas, the big red Republican state, can elect a trans person to a state legislator, the doors open up in a lot of other places for people,” she said. “And it helps those people who are transgender to reinforce that they are people who matter, they are people who are important and they’re people who can be successful in their lives.”
Ms. Byers
For most of her 29-year teaching career in Wichita, she was known as Mr. Byers.
Then, in 2014, Byers came out as a transgender woman, just five years shy of possible retirement. Overwhelmingly, Byers said, people were supportive — from her principal to school administrators to students.
She transitioned in hopes of living a more authentic life, she said at the time, not with any plans of becoming a pioneer or a spokesperson for the trans community. But that’s what she became anyway. In 2018, she was named Educator of the Year by the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network after having been nominated by North High’s then-principal Sherman Padgett.
When she retired at the end of the 2019 school year, Byers’ plan was to take six months to decide what she wanted to do next. Five months later, she was formulating plans to run for office.
She got the idea after accepting an assignment to drive Lt. Gov. Lynn Rogers, and his wife, Kris, in the 2019 Wichita Pride Parade. They got to talking, and the next thing she knew, a political future was percolating. It was suggested that she consider running for Ward’s seat
A week later, in October 2019, she was in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., giving a speech on behalf of GLSEN on the day the court was hearing arguments in Bostock vs. Clayton County — a landmark case in which the court upheld that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects employees against discrimination because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
“And I thought, ‘I’m really being given an opportunity here to do this,’” Byers said. “This gives me a chance to use my voice for more than just a rally here and there, but actually where I can make a concrete difference for people.”
Rogers said that leaders like Byers are what Kansas needs if things are going to change on a state level. The legislature body? is largely made up of “business and retired white men,” he said, and it needs different perspectives.
“I’m anxious for her to serve,” he said. “I think she’ll bring a different perspective, one that represents Wichitans and folks that just haven’t had a voice before.”
Byers, who’s been canvassing neighborhoods in her district and trying to safely meet constituents, said that she hasn’t faced much push-back. The people of her district are hard working blue collar people who often feel overlooked but who want what’s best for themselves and their families.
People in the trans community can certainly relate, she said.
“People view Wichita as conservative, but it’s really more engaging and more open than people would normally think,” she said.
Running on ideas
District 86, which makes up a swath of south-central Wichita, has typically leaned Democratic. Ward, a former Kansas House minority leader, has held the seat since 2013, and the district voted for President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly.
Byers’ campaign out-raised her opponent since July, bringing in a total of $31,578.15 as opposed to Howerton’s $9,360.05.
When asked outside polling places on Tuesday whether the candidates’ gender identities influenced how they voted, many said no.
Among them was Bill Moore, who voted Tuesday morning at Heart of Christ Church, near Lincoln and Grove.
Moore voted for Howerton, Byers’ Republican opponent, he said, because she came to his house and seemed like “a very level headed young lady.” He didn’t even know until after he’d voted that Byers was transgender, but that wouldn’t have mattered to him, he said.
“Anymore I don’t think it matters.... I think that people are looking for honesty and integrity. Those are the two things that should matter.”
Even Howerton said Byers’ gender identity wasn’t an issue. A pastor’s wife who’s spent her career managing retail offices at a personal income tax preparation company, Howerton said she decided to run for office because she was “sickened” by the polarization between the two parties and that she hoped to bring civil conversations to Kansas. Part of America’s beauty is its diversity, she said.
She didn’t bring up Byers’ gender identity during campaigning, she said.
“It’s not an issue in this race,” Howerton said. “We are running on ideas of what is best for our district and state. My goal has always been to be an advocate not an activist.”
On Tuesday, Byers applauded the fact that her gender identity was left out of the race completely.
“I’m incredibly grateful being a transgender woman running for office with the fact that my opponent made a point of saying she was not going to make that an issue, and she ran an incredibly clean campaign,” Byers said.
Annise Parker, who is the President and CEO of the Washington, D.C.,- based LGBTQ Victory Fund — a national organization dedicated to electing openly LGBTQ people — said she’s been watching Byers’ race closely.
She said it’s more important than ever for LGBTQ people to see that they can win, even in conservative states like Kansas. It’s especially urgent now that the federal government and state legislators are pushing legislation that limits trans rights. An example, she said, is a rule finalized in June by the Trump administration that removed nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people regarding health care and health insurance.
The more LGBTQ candidates who win, the more people will be willing to put themselves out there and run, she said.
And in her experience, voters have demonstrated that they care more about the quality of a candidate than about his or her gender identity.
That’s certainly true of Byers, she said, who has a long history in the district she hopes to represent in the state legislature.
“What we have seen is that LGBTQ candidates in general can win anywhere,” she said. “We’re rallying good candidates where we know our districts and our districts know us.”
On Tuesday, Byers said, she monitored election results with her wife of five years, Lori Haas, around a fire pit in their backyard.
Though early results in other state and national races weren’t what Byers was hoping for, she said, she’s ready for the new challenge.
“It‘s going to be a tough experience because we know how the races are playing out now for the rest of the legislative seats open here in Kansas,” she said. “But it’s going to be a good experience. I hope that I can make the people of District 86 proud.”
This story was originally published November 3, 2020 at 11:07 PM.
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