WHEELING, W.Va. — Rosemary Ketchum is ready to take office as a Wheeling City Council member with big ideas in transforming ‘The Friendly City,’ and when she does it will be history.
Ketchum, 26, is the first openly transgender person elected to office in West Virginia after her close victory in the Ward 3 race on June 9.
Although her gender identity has caught the eyes of national media and the world since the primary, Ketchum told MetroNews her identity was never a component of the grassroots campaign.
“My gender identity wasn’t a single conversation that I had with anybody,” she said. “It didn’t take up more than 10 minutes of the six months that I ran for office. Because we have so many systematic issues that we have to address in the city of Wheeling.”
Those issues she campaigned on were addressing homelessness and the opioid crisis, affordable housing and improving infrastructure in Wheeling.
She said on MetroNews ‘Talkline’ that she had genuine conversations about the issues when out campaigning and if her identity was brought up, she used it as an asset for communication.
“Having these awkward conversations with folks who have never met a trans person before, I think it puts people on a different level of communication and intimacy,” Ketchum said.
“Some of the folks who I have never met before were genuinely curious about my lived experience and what that meant for myself and my leadership. It really helps me build strong and resilient relationships in the city.”
Ketchum called trans people some of the most compassionate and resilient people she has ever met. The Wheeling University grad said her resiliency showed growing up in East Liverpool, Ohio and up to the election.
She said around age five or six that she knew she was different and her parents supported her throughout her childhood and identifying as transgender.
“Growing up wasn’t easy of course but I had a set of really good parents, who while they did not know all the details, led with love. That worked out for me,” Ketchum said.
Ketchum, who narrowly won the race by 11 votes, has been a community organizer in West Virginia. She said she decided to run because she figured out the biggest obstacles in her job were the elected officials.
Soon Ketchum will begin working with constituents and elected officials in the council seat. She said if her gender identity is the basis for somebody’s willingness to listen on her policies, they may not be worth speaking to.
Although based on her campaign and the reaction in Wheeling, she does not expect that to be an issue.
“I really believe that vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation and creativity. If a person immediately puts up their own guard and says ‘I am not going to talk to this person because I think they are like this or that,’ it’s not my job to convince those people,” Ketchum said.
“You don’t get to be a 26-year-old trans person without building resilience. With this national media attention, I have seen the comments and know what some folks are saying. But truthfully, the response has been overwhelmingly positive and folks are grateful that West Virginia is being cast in a flatteringly light for something progressive.”
Ketchum, a 2019 graduate of Wheeling University and resident of Wheeling for more than a decade, will be one of just 27 out trans elected officials in the entire nation.
Ketchum is only one of four people from the LGBTQ+ community as a whole to hold public office in West Virginia, according to the Victory Fund.
HISTORY MADE: @RosemaryKetchum just won a seat on the Wheeling City Council and is now the first out trans person ever elected in West Virginia! She will be one of just 27 out trans elected officials in the entire nation. pic.twitter.com/Ma3aMYpiTQ
— LGBTQ Victory Fund (@VictoryFund) June 10, 2020