Jacksonville – Florida is making history with the state’s first transgender delegate.
Monica DePaul of Jacksonville was elected May 7 to the Democratic National Convention.
She’s a district-level delegate from Florida’s 4th Congressional District.
DePaul will be one of 30 delegates from the LGBT community meeting in July at the convention in Philadelphia where the Democratic candidate for President of the United States will be nominated.
DePaul has pledged to Senator Bernie Sanders because of his stance on non-discrimination policies, environmental issue, and health care.
Sanders’ platform on affordable higher education is another major reason DePaul, an adjunct professor at University of North Florida, supports him.
DuPaul says she plans to use her expertise in rhetoric to change the conversation in the Democratic Party from “vote Democratic to stop Donald Trump” to focusing on real progressive policies.
“I feel like I am making history because Florida isn’t known to be very accepting of differences, especially me being from Jacksonville, which is the largest city in the U.S. without LGBT protection,” DePaul says.
Terry Fleming, president of the Florida LGBTA Democratic Caucus says DePaul’s election to a delegate position “shows that people care about folks that work hard to elect democrats and don’t care so much about the issues people are trying to wedge over.”
