Stu Rasmussen

Stu Rasmussen (September 9, 1948 – November 17, 2021) was an American politician. SheEfn|Rasmussen used both "she/her" and "he/him" pronouns.

Early life and career Stu Rasmussen was born on September 9, 1948 in Silverton, Oregon to Nan and Albert Rasmussen. Albert was a Danish immigrant and Stu was the couple's only child. Nan worked as a homemaker, and Albert ran a local movie theater, the Palace, as well as working in gold panning and mail delivery. In the 1990s, Rasmussen began dressing as characters from new movies to promote them. Later during Rasmussen's gender transition, her theater lost some business and was targeted for harassment by teenagers. She belonged to the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Rifle Association.

Rasmussen unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the Oregon House of Representatives in 1994 as an independent, and a seat in the Oregon State Senate in 1996 as a Democrat. She ran for the House again in 1998 as a Democrat, losing with 41% of the vote.

After publicly coming out as trans, Rasmussen won a 2004 election to a third term on the city council. In 2008, she ran for mayor, narrowly defeating Ken Hector, an eight-term incumbent. Hector and Rasmussen had already had frequent conflicts in local politics. Once, Hector had imposed a dress code on the city council while Rasmussen served there, aiming to force Rasmussen to stop wearing feminine clothes at work. Some locals explained that people in the town had already accepted Rasmussen's identity, having known her for years, and it did not strongly affect the race.

Several weeks after Rasmussen's victory, four members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas traveled to Silverton to protest Rasmussen's election. She remained mayor until 2014, when she lost re-election to Rick Lewis. She sometimes went by the name Carla Fong.

Rasmussen began exploring her gender identity as a teenager. In 1975, she saw The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and was strongly influenced by its portrayal of a man in drag. She later recounted that the film the first time she had heard words like "transvestite" and "transsexual". During the 1990s, she began publicly transitioning and gradually experimented with her gender expression. She began doing her nails and would dress up as characters, often women, to advertise movie premieres. She later began wearing bras under masculine clothing on errands to test if she "could survive with breasts", and she had breast augmentation surgery at 52 years old. She later advised Claire Hall on her own transition while in public office, saying that it would be tough and require a lot of internal work, but externally, most people would not care beyond some resistant constituents.

Legacy and recognition Rasmussen often spoke about her experiences with LGBTQ publications and universities.