Leah Lake, an intersex transgender activist running for the D.C. Democratic State Committee as part of the progressive Free DC Candidates, has won the right to appear on the Democratic primary ballot under the name she uses in her everyday life. The decision could ease the path for future transgender, non-binary and intersex candidates seeking public office in the district.
Free DC policies operate on a progressive platform that challenges the current leadership of the DC Democratic Party. Members of the party argue that party leaders, running under the banner “Democrats United to Free D.C.,” have failed to sufficiently organize residents in the district to protect D.C.’s autonomy and local government from federal interference.
Each candidate includes candidates for national committee posts, at-large seats, and district committee posts, and party rules require balanced representation between men and women.
Lake was approached about running for the D.C. Democratic State Committee by organizers of the Free DC Movement, a project of the national nonprofit Community Change and its advocacy arm, Community Change Action. She has been doing volunteer work.
“I was invited to join a team of 46 others to run together and really drive an electoral uprising from within the DC Democratic Party to push the DC Democratic Party to align more closely with the values of Free DC,” she says.
Lake agreed to run as a member of the Grand Committee and asked that she and other candidate members jointly apply for ballot access. As part of those applications, she submitted her original surname “Kuduk”. Although she rarely uses it, it connects the name she uses publicly with her real name.
“I wanted to make sure there was no confusion in any way and that the D.C. Board of Elections knew there was a connection between my real name and the name I go by,” she explains.
Unlike other transgender members of Free DC, Lake has not legally changed his name. She said doing so would put her in a “lose-lose” situation because the federal government, especially under the Trump administration, does not recognize transgender identities as valid.
“I can’t promise to change the name,” she said. metro weekly. “It’s possible, but changing the government’s name means coming out to the government yourself, and we currently live under a government controlled by authoritarian forces that are very hostile to the trans community. ”
She argues that changing a name can complicate identity verification, pointing out that current Trump administration policy prohibits transgender people from changing the gender marker on federal identification documents, including passports.
“Right now, I just use an ID with my government name on it,” she says. “Actually, I’ve never had a problem with that at the airport either. They’re mainly checking to see if the ID is valid and if it looks like you. They don’t go into your gender or your name. They look at your date of birth and the fact that it’s a valid ID and the photo looks like you. And my photo looks a lot like me.”
During the distribution of the ballot access petition, Lake learned that the Board of Elections had ruled her preferred name ineligible and intended to place her male birth name on the ballot.
“They also made me understand that I had a right to appeal if there was a substantial disagreement on my side about the name they chose to put on the ballot,” she says.
Mr. Lake filed an appeal even though he understood the reasoning behind the board’s original decision.
“There are standards based on DCBOE’s past case law that require that the names that appear on the ballot are not confusing or misleading,” she says. “So someone might try to run as ‘John Statehood Brown’ on the ballot, and they might try to put a campaign message on it, but that’s not central to their identity. There are also existing cases where someone has a common name like “Bob Smith” and an opponent deliberately confuses and reduces the number of voters by rounding up another person with the same name and persuading them to run so that there are two Bob Smiths on the ballot. Therefore, I believe the BOE was doing its due diligence by requiring me to appeal the initial judgment. ”
Ms. Lake appeared at a formal hearing via Zoom on March 30 and presented evidence showing that she regularly uses the name Leah Lake, including her social media profiles.
Ms. Lake also submitted statements from people who attested to using the name in their daily lives. among them rulingthe committee found “overwhelming evidence” that Lake was “known in public and private life as ‘Leah Lake Kuduk'” and that listing her by her real name was “likely to actually confuse voters.”
“Furthermore, the name ‘Lake Lear Kuduku’ is not associated with any political message,” the ruling states. “Therefore, if a candidate’s name appears on the ballot as ‘Lea Lake Kuduk,’ voters will not be confused as to the candidate’s identity, and there is no improper use of the ballot associated with the listing of the name ‘Lea Lake Kuduk’ on the ballot.”
Lake said no one challenged her identity or testified against her at the hearing, and DCBOE Chairman Gary Thompson and board member Karyn Greenfield were sympathetic to her challenge.
“The chairman even apologized to me for the hearing having to be held,” she says.
Capital Stonewall Democratic Party Chairman Stevie McCarty praised the DCBOE’s decision, calling it a “milestone” for future candidates seeking office in the district.
“DC is taking a stand as the federal government seeks to roll back transgender rights across the country,” McCarty said. metro weekly. “D.C. can serve as a model for other election officials and secretaries of state when it comes to voting rights for transgender people.”
Lake said the ruling is the first of its kind in Washington, D.C., and sets an important precedent.
“It sends a strong signal and statement about DC and our values,” she says. “Now, transgender, nonbinary, and intersex candidates in Washington, D.C., will have a clear path to run for office in local elections, even if the hateful neo-Confederacy sits under the control of the federal government.”
Source: Metro Weekly – www.metroweekly.com
