The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) congratulates Andrea Jenkins, a Minneapolis City Councilor and Human Rights Campaign board member, on her election to the role of City Council President. Jenkins, who became the first openly transgender Black woman elected to public office in 2017, was endorsed for re-election by HRC PAC last year.

“The Human Rights Campaign congratulates City Council President Andrea Jenkins on this historic achievement. The whole of Minneapolis will benefit from the leadership that Councilor Jenkins has delivered since she was first elected in 2017,” said Human Rights Campaign Senior Vice President of Policy and Political Affairs JoDee Winterhof. “Councilor Jenkins’s reputation as a tireless advocate, her dedication to public service, and her efficacy in fighting on behalf of those on the margins of society have been recognized and reaffirmed by her peers on the council. We look forward to continuing to work with City Council President Jenkins in the years to come.”

Councilor Jenkins launched a Pledge to End Violence Against Black and Brown Transgender Women as part of the Human Rights Campaign’s Transgender Justice Initiative. Prior to her election to Minneapolis City Council, Councilor Jenkins served as the oral historian for the Transgender Oral History Project at the University of Minnesota Libraries, documenting the lived experiences of transgender and gender-nonconforming people in the Upper Midwest and the United States. Her work as a poet and artist includes collections such as “Queer Voices: Poetry, Prose and Pride,” “A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota” and “Blues Vision: African American Writing from Minnesota.”