When Taylor Small filed her candidacy for a Winooski House seat, it didn’t immediately occur to her that she might make history if she won.
Vermonters have never elected an openly transgender lawmaker to a Statehouse seat. Small, an openly transgender woman, is running for a House seat vacated by Rep. Diana Gonzalez, P-Winooski, who decided not to run for re-election.
There are two other transgender candidates in House races this year, though they’re facing more of an uphill battle. Democrat Ember Quinn is taking on two Republican incumbents in Milton, and Jamie Dufour is part of a competitive Democratic primary in Manchester.
In Winooski, incumbent Rep. Hal Colston is expected to win one of the city’s two seats, leaving Small and Jordan Matte competing for the other Democratic nomination. Small is the director of health and wellness at Pride Center of Vermont and Matte is a mechanical assembler at Biotek Instruments.
Small doesn’t want to be reduced to her identity in this race. But she knows that bringing her personal perspective to the Statehouse would be significant.
“If we do move in this direction, which I hope we do, we would be the fifth state in the U.S. to actually have an out transgender person hold elected office,” Small said. “Which is wild to think about because of the fact that when we look at our state legislators, who is typically represented in those bodies? It’s typically white folks. It’s typically folks who have an excess of wealth.”
And, she added, “they’re primarily straight and cisgender as well.”
Small said Vermont’s Legislature needs the perspectives of marginalized citizens because they’re the representatives who have a personal and political objective to create inclusive policies for all. This philosophy, Small said, is encapsulated in her campaign’s slogan: “Uplifting all Vermonters.”
Small, who is 26, was born in Maine. Her early life was defined by frequent moves with her parents, who struggled to find stable work and experienced bankruptcy. When she was 5, her family moved to Massachusetts. But at 16, when her parents separated, Taylor and her mom moved back to Vermont, where she attended Colchester High School.
“I always say that when we were moving up here, I felt this big change that was coming,” Small said. “But I couldn’t put my finger on what it was.”
In Vermont, Small said she found that people here asked how she identified, rather than assuming that she was gay, as she had experienced in Massachusetts. The bullying and harassment she faced based on assumptions of her identity had even turned violent back in Massachusetts. Small said she was once physically assaulted.
She said Vermont had this “magic” to it. Here she felt she could be herself. During her senior year of high school she came out as gay. She later enrolled in the University of Vermont, where she studied human development and family studies, and sexuality and gender identity studies.
“And then through my college career is when I started to understand that my gender identity wasn’t necessarily aligned with what I was assigned at birth,” Small said. “And so for a majority of that time I identified as nonbinary, used they/them pronouns.”
During her senior year at UVM, Small came out as a transgender woman. She said her family immediately accepted her. But transitioning was challenging — especially because Small felt she had to live up to societal standards of femininity.
When she began her hormone replacement therapy, she was still masculine presenting, which sometimes elicited harassment when she wore feminine clothing. She remembered once walking in downtown Burlington and being followed.
“I had people follow me, yelling at me, telling me how disgusting I am and how I shouldn’t be there,” Small said. “And so that, of course, takes a toll on a person.”
Then there were the employment hurdles. Small has worked as a behavioral interventionist for youth in crisis at the Howard Center, she’s worked in the Spectrum Youth & Family Services shelter which houses runaway and homeless youth, and she’s worked as an adolescent services specialist for Northwestern Counseling and Support Services.
At Northwestern, she didn’t feel that her identity was respected. Her colleagues didn’t always use her she/her pronouns and she was frequently misgendered. So she decided to look for another job.
But she had a hard time finding work. Small suspects employers chose other candidates because of her identity, despite assurances that Small was an ideal candidate.
She subsequently found herself unemployed for six months and felt hopeless. During that time, she began volunteering at the Pride Center. Soon enough a part-time position opened up and then a full-time position. Almost three years later, Small is now heading the organization’s health and wellness program.
Her passion for equitable access to mental and physical health care has been present throughout her career; now Small is molding her campaign around it. A central issue of her campaign is health care reform. If she gets to the Statehouse, she wants to work for a single-payer model for the state.
Small has been endorsed by incumbent Gonzalez — who encouraged Small to run and is now her campaign treasurer — and by Christine Hallquist, who in 2018 was the first openly transgender woman to run for governor in Vermont.
National organizations Run for Something and People’s Action, both progressive political organizing groups, have endorsed her. Small said she was recently contacted by Virginia State Rep. Danica Roem, who gained national attention in 2017 as the first openly transgender woman to win a House election in Virgina.
Roem was impressed with the momentum of Small’s campaign, Small said, and asked if she was new to politics.
“I was like ‘No, I really did just come on to the scene. But I’ve been doing this work on a smaller scale of course,’” Small said.
Matte, Small’s opponent, said he’s not frustrated that she’s receiving more attention in this race because of her identity. He thinks it’s “great” that Small is bringing her perspective to this race. He still thinks he has a good chance of winning because of his name recognition in town and his platform focused on increasing revenue for Winooski.
Matte is the husband of Winooski Mayor Kristine Lott. He said he’s a fourth generation Winooskian, and his family has roots in the town due to their property ownership. “It’s word of mouth here more than anything,” he said.
If he gets to the Statehouse, Matte said he would specifically support legislation to create a legal marketplace around marijuana in an effort to drive tax revenue for the small city — a central concern of his.
“I think it’s a good moneymaker for Vermont and maybe Winooski if we can get a retail store here,” Matte said. “We have a pretty small tax base, so really relying just on taxes to support ed funding and the useful side of things I don’t think is sustainable.”
Matte isn’t fundraising money. He didn’t think it was appropriate to ask community members for money because so many are facing economic impacts from Covid-19. He’s put in $250 of his own money to fund his race.
Small has brought in $9,592 according to campaign filings.
The only high-profile endorsement Matte has received came from Colston, the incumbent in the race, although Matte said he wasn’t seeking any endorsements. Still, he views the race as a “toss up” and thinks his community connections will win over voters.
In late July, Matte was cited for driving under the influence, according to Winooski Police records. He said he would not comment on the arrest because of “court proceedings.” Seven Days reported that Matte had a civil license suspension hearing related to the arrest last week, and could face criminal charges.
Gonzalez said she thinks Matte’s campaign has been quiet. She said she couldn’t differentiate between him and Small because she hasn’t heard much about his platform. She thinks Small will win because of the perspective and experience she’ll bring to the role.
“Her work in the community has always been grounded in community empowerment and using the community connection of entertainment and health to really open the multiple roles she plays,” Gonzalez said. “That is just so exciting.”
Gonzalez alluded to Small’s performances as her drag persona, Nikki Champagne — an identity based on Nicki Minaj, a Trinidadian performer.
Performing as a queen allows Small to experience and express an “unapologetic queerness in saying I’m here and proud to be here,” she said.
Champagne is one half of the team that has brought drag queen story hours to Vermont libraries across the state since 2017. She and her partner, Emoji Nightmare, traveled to libraries around Vermont to read books to kids, while decked out in glamorous makeup and neon clothing. The events intend to highlight inclusivity and diversity, and provide kids with positive queer representation.
At times they’ve drawn backlash, like in early 2019, when a conservative blogger with a substantial following attempted to get a story hour shut down at the Kellogg-Hubbard Montpelier library.
But the push back hasn’t swayed Small. She said those experiences, and her professional background in advocating for LGBTQ healthcare services, have prepared her for tough conversations about gender identity she could face in the Statehouse.
“There’s this preparation piece. And coming into the Statehouse and understanding that I will have to fight to have my identity respected in that space. And that there are going to be people who just A, don’t understand and B, don’t care to,” Small said.
“I’m not worried about having those difficult and challenging conversations with folks in the Statehouse,” she said. “But my biggest hope and dream is that the other lawmakers are still going to see me as the changemaker that I am. And not reduce me to just my identity.”