First transgender mayor in U.S. history leaves office

On Monday, Jan. 5, Stu Rasmussen handed a small wooden gavel to Mayor Rick Lewis at the first city council of 2015, his final act after serving six years as mayor of Silverton.

The terms on which Rasmussen left office pale in comparison to the fervor surrounding his election in 2008. The first openly transgender person to hold public office in the U.S., Rasmussen prompted a rush of media coverage then with his achievement and incidentally polarized national opinion — despite earning public office four years earlier on the city council. His election inspired a fledgling movement for trans awareness, and also a protest from the Westboro Baptist Church that picketed in Silverton three weeks later.

No such frenzy followed Rasmussen on Monday. The groundbreaking figure exited office in the same manner so many other politicians have: in a deluge of public opinion calling for new ideas. Three others, a majority of the council with Rasmussen, were unseated in the same election.

"The strife in the council took its toll on the community," Rasmussen said last week in an interview at the Silverton Coffee House. "In all candor, it was a dysfunctional council."

During the interview, Rasmussen spoke in tangible terms of what he accomplished during his 10 years as part of the council, particularly as mayor. The early warning system at the Silver Creek Dam, the new senior center and the city skate park are hallmarks of the era, Rasmussen said.

"We could have done a great deal more if we had a council that was focused on moving forward," Rasmussen said. "It was highly polarized. We could not work together."

That includes Rasmussen, whose reputation for being forthright stems in part from tense debates in council. Not one to shy away from an argument, Rasmussen's viewpoints at times clashed with council members, and for casual observers may even have clashed with his national identity as a social pioneer.

Yet while Rasmussen's decision to acquire breast implants serves as an emblem of progressive social values, his values for the Silverton community and the city's fiscal policy lie on the opposite side of the political spectrum. That conservative — at times even regressive — approach to life in Silverton could put him at odds with the council.

"Change is not necessarily progress," Rasmussen said, lambasting a past proposal to close off Main Street and create an outdoor shopping area known as a pedestrian mall. Rasmussen played a key role in stalling the project.

"This town is really good at being a small town. It has charm, it has character, and you don't want to destroy that," he said.

Rasmussen earned public office in the first place with that viewpoint, as the crux of his political campaign in 2003.

"Silverton was growing too fast; it was turning into something that was not Silverton. So I ran for the council on the slow-growth platform," Rasmussen said.

Just three years earlier, Rasmussen had undergone breast augmentation surgery. While Rasmussen understood the political arena, with 12 years of experience as a mayor and city councilor in the 1980s and 90s, he doubted his chances as a transgender candidate.

"I figured my political career was over because, you know, "who is going to elect somebody in that package?" he said.

Rasmussen won the election in 2004, and in the 2008 election defeated incumbent Ken Hector and candidate Jim Squires with 52 percent of the vote. That moment, and the quick arrival of four protestors from Westboro Baptist, earned Rasmussen a national profile that pays tribute to his passion for politics and Silverton's capacity for acceptance.

"A lot of people who are transgender think, 'I can't be myself here. I have to go somewhere else, go to Portland or to San Francisco, and let the other side of me come out," Rasmussen said. "I transitioned in place. And the community came along with me."

That national identity is something that Rasmussen has come to embrace despite early reservations. Speeches on his experiences will no doubt occupy some of his time now that his 10-year-run in public office is over. But his role as an openly trans ambassador certainly won't overwhelm his commitment to local issues, he said.

"I'm not dead yet," Rasmussen said. "The community said I need a break, so I'm going to take one."

A break, he said, includes anything from mailing lists to letters to the editor. And he said he is leaving it to the community to decide whether he runs for public office again.

"If the community wants me back they'll let me know," he said. "This is an amazing town ... I'm here for the long-term."