THE FRONT Q&A
MEETING CULTURE WARRIORS AT THE GATES A Q&A WITH JUDSON SCANLON Judson Scanlon is the first openly transgender candidate to run for a seat in the Arkansas legislature, but you’ll get over it. It usually takes about 5 seconds for people to adjust to this novel situation before moving on to the business at hand, Scanlon said. That business is Democrat Scanlon’s campaign for the District 70 state House seat to represent portions of North Little Rock and Sherwood. Scanlon is challenging incumbent Carlton Wing, a Republican who held on by only 16 votes in his challenge by firefighter Matthew Stallings in 2020. Arkansas’s Republican-controlled Board of Apportionment has since redrawn the district (imagine that!), making it whiter and ostensibly more conservative. An old-school, boots-on-the-ground campaigner, Scanlon seems undaunted. The arduous work of making phone calls and knocking on doors can win elections, and Scanlon has 30 years of experience doing just that.
wrong for the general population, then fundraise around it. So the real purpose of these legislative issues is funding for the Arkansas Family Council. They use those issues in order to pad their coffers so they can continue waging inappropriate culture wars. It’s for fundraising, it’s just for money. Because these things they talk about aren’t happening. There are no transgender athletes in Arkansas who are trying to steal the trophies of women athletes.
BRIAN CHILSON
It’s a flaming cauldron of hate out there for a transgender candidate to jump into. Doesn’t it hurt your feelings? I grew up gay in this state. I spent 26 years of my life hiding to protect myself. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and I don’t believe any children should have to go through that. I don’t think that I went through it just for my own purposes, but so that I could actually stand up for other people. FAMILY: four parents, five siblings, one wife, two I’ve been in this fight long enough to children (ages 36 and 11), two dogs and many friends know that the people inflicting this who are family by choice. What made you decide to run for this pain and trauma on children don’t truly seat? It was an active decision and a understand how much pain and trauma SOMETHING PEOPLE DON’T KNOW: I once spent passive decision. The active decision they are inflicting. I’ve gotten to the point five months as a cook on a fishing boat in Alaska. happened three weeks before filing. The where I keep trying to recruit people to passive decision — that I would focus do the right thing, and when they fail, it’s FAVORITE POLITICIAN: Sen. Paul Wellstone of specifically on this district — happened hard for me to comprehend. There’s no Minnesota. He was perfectly imperfect. during the legislative session. I was better time for me to stand up for chilinfuriated because Carlton Wing refused dren than right now in this culture war. I to take action on giving schools the ability to enforce mask mandates. didn’t invite this war, but I’m not going to run away from it. He was present for the vote but didn’t vote, for or against. I think that if you elect somebody, they have to represent, not just be present. What are your main issues? I’m not running as a transgender candiAnd the legislature spent so much time focusing on children in such a date. I’m running as a candidate who cares about teachers, about our negative way. In my mind, they came for the kids. And that’s not right. health care workers and about the fact that we do not have mandatory drivers ed in our schools for graduating seniors. We’re putting kids on Was the 2021 Arkansas legislative session the worst you’ve ever the road, behind the wheel of thousand-pound killing machines, without seen? It’s up there with the top five. In the last 10 years, we’ve gotten protecting them. And I just happen to be transgender. progressively worse. The adoption ban for gays and lesbians was the begining, for me, of the slide into complete and utter disgust. We went You have a lot of experience in the political realm. Is that paying off from the adoption ban to the ban on anti-discrimination language for for you now? The people who are showing up for me are the people towns and cities, and then we started looking at choice and doing all the I’ve shown up for over the past 30 years. That should be a lesson for anti-abortion pieces. And then they gave people permission to kill other everybody. I have people who want to be part of my team who are people with “stand your ground” [Act 250 of 2021, which authorizes reaching out to me because I’ve helped them or their loved ones. Arkansans to use deadly force if they feel threatened, even if they could Leaders in the Democratic Party are coming up to me and saying, “It’s have simply walked away instead]. Then we had the pandemic, and about time.” I have people asking, “Why have you waited so long?” At they started targeting children. the same time, for the last 20 years in Arkansas, I’ve felt like I didn’t belong. So it’s been hard for me to step into this space. Why is this happening? There’s a new job title that I want to start givMy life has always been about pushing the person in front of me foring people. It’s “conflict entrepreneur.” These are people like the Arkanward instead of that being me. sas Family Council who determine what’s good, what’s bad and what’s — Austin Bailey ARKTIMES.COM
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