Family Photos

 

Gallup, New Mexico

Route 66 (like in the song...)

Now you go through saint looey /Joplin, missouri, /And oklahoma city is mighty pretty. /You see amarillo, /Gallup, new mexico, /Flagstaff, arizona. /Don't forget winona, /Kingman, barstow, san bernandino.
Won't you get hip to this timely tip: /When you make that california trip /Get your kicks on route sixty-six.

heart of Indian Country

home to father's family since anyone can remember
one of the saddest places I have ever been,  one of the places that is part of me

Melissa Sue Robinson

     Melissa Sue Robinson is running for state legislature in Idaho's District 12B.  In 2009, she ran for mayor of Nampa, Idaho, a farming and manufacturing town west of Boise.  She ran for mayor of Lansing, Michigan in 2003 and the Michigan House of Representatives in 2004 and 2006.

    Here is her Wikipedia entry:

     Melissa Sue Robinson was born Charles Edward Staelens Jr. in Jackson, Michigan on July 16, 1950. Having lived most of her life in Lansing, Michigan, Robinson moved to Nampa in 2008. Robinson had gender reassignment surgery to become a woman in December 1998 and is one of the identical twins that was featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show entitled "when One Identical Twin Changes Genders" in September 2005.

    Robinson is a former construction company owner, former because she had to sell her company after the sex change surgery. Robinson obtained her BA degree (political science) from Michigan State University in 1994 at age 44. After a transgendered person (Nikki Nicholas), was murdered near Detroit, Robinson went on to found the National Association for the Advancement of Transgendered People (a non-profit) in 2001 which advocated for other transgendered people worldwide. Robinson has also ran for several political offices in Michigan, and was one of the people that helped get anti-discrimination ordinances which included gender identity and expression in its wording in Lansing and East Lansing, Michigan.

    Robinson ran for Mayor of Lansing, Michigan in 2003, for the Michigan House of Representatives in 2004 and 2006, the Michigan State Senate in a special election in 2006, and is running for Mayor of Nampa, Idaho in 2009. In all of her Michigan races she was forced to use her old male name next to her new female name on the ballot, because of a Michigan law that states that if a person changes names then runs for office, both names have to be on the ballot. Robinson unsuccessfully fought that law in 2006. That rule expires once the person has the new name for ten years. Because Robinson changed her name in 1998, that rule has now expired.

   After reading an article about Ms. Robinson's mayoral campaign in Nampa, I contacted her to ask if she would let me take her portrait, as part of an on-going project I am working on about gender, stereotypes, and 21st century America.  Nampa is very Republican and rural, like most of Idaho - not a state known for its open mindedness or diversity.  For example, currently in Idaho, sexual orientation and gender identity are not covered by the 1968 Human Rights Act that currently bans workplace and housing discrimination based on race, sex, religion, color, national origin or mental or physical disability.  That means you can be denied an apartment or be fired from your job if you are homosexual or transgender.  Melissa is a transsexual Democrat.

   Melissa met me at the Flying M cafe, an independently owned coffee shop in Nampa where she often conducts her interviews and media contacts.  Melissa spoke to me of her political views - job creation and protecting the middle class are her primary concerns - and her history as a man who once owned his own construction company and was married.  Melissa has an identical two brother, who went on to form a relationship with Melissa's ex-wife and they now all live together.  Both her brother and ex-wife, declined to be photographed for a family portrait.

 To learn more about her political platform, you can visit her website:

 http://www.electrobinsonforidaho.org/
 Melissa also has posted her own campaign videos.

Here is her "Silent Political Brochure" for her 2009 mayoral campaign - 
     "What? Elvis is BacK? Watch this video!!! I decided to try something very green. Instead of flooding the mail with thousands of political brochures, I decided to put my brochure on You Tube"


 

A webcam broadcast for her state legislator bid from October 2010

 

November 2nd is Election Day.  I get the impression the Melissa Sue will keep at it despite what the ballots say, keep participating in the American political system - I admire her belief that it is still possible to make a difference in that game. 

all photos ©2010 MA