In January, the Georgia Legislature is likely to welcome its first openly transgender, nonbinary and Japanese-American lawmaker, and all these firsts could be courtesy of one person.
Bentley Hudgins, whose experience includes serving as Georgia state director for the Human Rights Campaign, was the top vote-getter in last month’s Democratic primary election to represent House District 90, which includes parts of DeKalb County.
Hudgins defeated fellow Democrat Leisa Stafford with just over two-thirds of the vote. Republican Samantha Boston, a commodity analyst, is running on the Republican ticket. The district is one of the most Democratic in the state. The district’s current state representative, Saira Draper, is running for state Senate.
Hudgins said they don’t take the historic aspects of their candidacy lightly at a time when the state and federal governments are passing laws targeting immigrants and the rights of transgender people, but they said their eyes are on the work ahead.
“To me, it shows that the voters are tired of the hate and they just care about somebody’s qualifications,” Hudgins said in an interview. “But as a representative, I view the win, historic or not, as a starting point, and it’s up to me to prove to the people of my House district that good government can happen and that we can build a democracy that is worth fighting for.”
The quarter-century path started by Drenner
In 2001, Avondale Estates Democrat Karla Drenner became the first openly LGBTQ member of the Georgia Legislature. Jeff Graham, executive director of Georgia Equality, said her election helped put a face to the community for other lawmakers.
“I do believe that we will see it again if Bentley is successful in November,” Graham said.
“It’s incredibly important that someone be able to build relationships with their fellow legislators so that they learn the realities to be able to dispel some of the myths and to really recognize the humanity of non-binary and transgender folks here in Georgia,” he added.
Hudgins has a degree in philosophy and bioethics from Mercer University and has worked for over a decade in organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Georgia AFL-CIO, the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute and the now defunct New Georgia Project.
Hudgins said they’re working to set up constituent services, including an interfaith commission and scheduling monthly organizing calls.
Hudgins’ election reflects a Georgia that is becoming more diverse, said Yana Batra, a community organizer with the Georgia Youth Justice Coalition, a youth justice organization that helped knock on more than 9,000 doors on Hudgins’ behalf.
“Especially in an environment where we often see baseless attacks made on some of the most vulnerable members of our society, including transgender youth especially, instead of real progress being made on the issues that matter for Georgians, things like expanding Medicaid, things like making our public school systems stronger, it’s so, so important to have voices like Bentley in the Legislature.”
Hudgins wants to stop new data centers, expand Medicaid
Hudgins said they are hopeful that Democrats could win a majority of state House seats by the time next year’s legislative session comes along. But even if Republicans retain control, Hudgins said they’re looking forward to working with Republicans on issues like data centers where there is some bipartisan agreement, although lawmakers ultimately punted on data center regulations earlier this year. Hudgins said they favor a moratorium on new data centers.
“There are things like data centers that, regardless of party, people are not in favor of,” they said. “Two of them are being proposed in my district. So figuring out a way to halt data center construction so that we can study it and make sure that we’re building them in a way that doesn’t wreck our environment would be the first thing.”
Hudgins said they also plan to push Republicans on other measures, such as expanding Medicaid, where the GOP may face increasing pressure after November’s election.
The election of transgender people has led to what some call a backlash in other states and at the federal level.
Hudgins said they’ve been dealing with hateful people their entire life, and they’ve adopted the mantra of drag performer Jinkx Monsoon from TV’s “RuPaul’s Drag Race” – “Water off a duck’s back.”
“The only thing that I can control is myself and my responses, and if that does happen, I’ll be grateful because it’s not so often that people give you the opportunity to actually know who they are,” they said. “So whether they are supportive or whether they figure out ways to attack me and make my life difficult just because I’m different than they are, I’m grateful because I know who I’m in the room with.”
During their downtime, you’ll often find Hudgins hanging out with fiance Robert – the wedding is in November – working in the garden of their Longdale Park home or cooking up what they’ve grown.
“At this point, our entire, like every square inch of our property, there’s no grass, it’s all gardens,” they said. “I just finished picking all our fava beans. We have so many vegetables.”
Attempts to contact Boston, Hudgins’ Republican opponent in November, were not successful.
This story was provided by WABE media partner the Georgia Recorder.
