Wadsworth, Ohio’s first out nonbinary City Council candidate, Angela “Gie” May, didn’t think that they would win the Nov. 4 election.
May thought, at most, they would raise awareness for the Wadsworth Democratic Party in the majority-Republican Medina County district and help voters recognize an alternative to voting Republican. But by the end of Election Day, Wadsworth voters had chosen May over the incumbent, Republican David Parish.
May won the Ward 4 council seat by 13 votes. The results were close enough to call for a recount, but May said Parish and the mayor congratulated them the next day.
“My opponent walked up and shook my hand and said, ‘If you work as hard on City Council as you did during the campaign, I know you’re gonna do a good job.’”
‘Three months of very long days’
May’s campaign began when they passed out promotional stress balls during a parade at the city’s Blue Tip Festival, which celebrated the town’s history as the center of the matchstick industry. May bought 1,200 balls, which ran out by the end of the day.
May’s campaign manager, Leah Nichols, helped them get ready to canvass the ward. But May had a head start.
“The people in this area saw me walking my dog on almost a daily basis, so even if they didn’t know who I was exactly, my face was familiar to them,” May said.
The ward race played to May’s strengths, as they preferred one-on-one conversations over public speaking.
During speeches, “people weren’t really seeing me,” May said. “They just saw this nervous person up there trying to remember all the bullet points.”
Talking to individual voters gave them a chance to show they were a “good person with reasonable plans” and to be their “authentic self.”
For three months of “very long days,” May promoted safe and walkable streets, controlling energy prices and connecting residents to city business through ward meetups.
On voting day, May was in disbelief when the Medina County Gazette called the race at 11 p.m. and asked them for a statement the next day. May had a win speech and a lose speech — but no recount speech.
May didn’t feel comfortable declaring their win until the official results came in, but the Gazette responded back,
“‘No, you won. That’s what happened.’ I was like, ‘Are you sure?’”
May is one of a handful of nonbinary elected officials
To May, winning the election showed that Wadsworth wants more diverse voices in their leadership.
“There are so many of us that do have different opinions and things we can bring to the table that can help balance things out,” May said. “Maybe Wadsworth was a lot more comfortable with people that are nontraditional, but they didn’t have that person who’s able to work with them [because] we were all kind of hiding, standing back and not willing to be that voice for fear of Nazis showing up.”
Being one of the few nonbinary elected officials in Ohio is “awesome,” May said. During the campaign, their LGBTQ+ identity rarely came up. They would only state their preferred name and pronouns before jumping into talking about their platform.
As they begin the onboarding process for City Council, everyone has been respectful and asked May for their preferred way to be addressed. Despite running as Angela May, May prefers “Gie” and uses they/them pronouns.
May believes they got to where they are because they lack fear “down to a stupid level.”
“I’m going to do the things that make me happy, not what society is telling me I should be doing.” May said.
Some voters worried that May would not be able to work with the Republican council members – who still hold a majority despite May and one other Democrat winning seats – which May said was “furthest from the truth.”
“Someone like me has spent my entire life working and dealing with people who didn’t, maybe even want to try and understand me, but getting upset and being reactionary doesn’t help us get to the goal,” May said. “You have to work in such a way to bring people to understand why this is important and why it’s valuable, and I want to be part of that process.”
“I want to be that positive influence. I don’t want to be a negative.” 🔥
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