Victoria Kolakowski Photo By The Oakland Tribune
By Mark Singer (Washington DC) NOV 3 | In Alameda County, California this morning with all of the county's precincts reporting, 49 year old Victoria Kolakowski has been elected as a Superior Court Judge defeating her opponent, Alameda County Deputy District Attorney John Creighton, in a narrow win in what had been a hotly contested race. In an interview with student journalist Alexa Sasanow writing for The Tuft's Daily newspaper, Kolakowski said:
"The trans thing isn't the first thing I talk about," Kolakowski told the Daily. "I talk about my experience, things I've done as a lawyer, things I want to do as a judge, and when there's time, I say something about being transgender. It's not what I lead with, and a lot of people don't know. I'm not hiding it, but it's one of the things that is difficult when you're running a race; how do you address this issue? You don't want to be hiding something about who you are, if you're out, but you also don't want to say, ‘Vote for me. I'm wearing a rainbow flag."
Kolakowski, an administrative judge for the Calfornia Public Utilities Commission, made history as the first transgendered American citizen elected to a judgeship. In talking about her experiences as a Transgendered female she said:
"Coming out, before I transitioned, it was so hard to explain to someone, to go ‘I'm a woman,' and they go ‘No, you're not,' and I say ‘I feel like this,' and they say ‘You have a problem,'" she said. "A lot of people come from this perspective that we're out of touch with reality, so we become unreliable or undependable. Usually, people who have problems with gays and lesbians see it as more of a moral issue – that it's immoral, not that they think they're crazy. With trans people, there is this perception that, not what we're doing is immoral, but the fundamental perspective is that we're out of touch with reality."
Kolakowski was part of a group of transgender candidates across the nation that was recently profiled in the New York Times, and she cited some of the online comments on the article as indicative of a culture of homophobia and transphobia that still exists in the United States in many forms.
Ms. Kolakowski held off a strong surge by her opponent Creighton who closed a 14-point gap from the June primary. Kolakowski held 50.2 percent of the vote against the Deputy District Attorney, who had 48.7 percent.
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"Usually, people who have problems with gays and lesbians see it as more of a moral issue – that it's immoral, not that they think they're crazy. With trans people, there is this perception that, not what we're doing is immoral, but the fundamental perspective is that we're out of touch with reality."
What a terribly sad commentary on so many people. It seems that anything different, particularly if seen as being different from "God's Plan", is to be condemned, and most particularly by those who keep insisting that God is in control. Why is it so hard for them to believe that people can come in all types? What is it about these people, who profess to faith, that they have so little of it. One has to think that they too are a variety that needs to be forgiven, although the initial temptation is to condemn them too.
Great insight in your comment Trab.
It strikes me as very sad that the people who have a dependency on an external authority figure in the form of a god are the ones who actually need psychiatric help. I don't mean the people who believe in a god as an answer to the meaning of existence, but the people who allow myth and legend to interfere with, and distort their perception of reality.
When the religious person believes that a faith demands that they encroach on the freedoms of others, then there is a real danger of that being due to a neurosis requiring professional help, in my opinion.
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