This is an IHeart podcast.

Hey, this is Annie.

And Samantha.

And welcome to Step One Never Told You, production of IHeart Radio.

And we are excited to start off of Pride Month by celebrating the works and the accomplishments of the first Black openly trans woman to be elected into public office in the United States,

Andrea Jenkins. And that is our activists around

the world, if you didn't know what this segment was. Also, happy pride. Yes, happy pride.

So Jenkins made history in 2017 with her decision to run for city council in Minneapolis's

eighth ward. She is very familiar in the political realm.

She started her career in 2001.

Jenkins worked on the campaign for Robert Lilligrin and went on to become one of his staffers.

And later, she was hired as an aide for council member Elizabeth Gooden, and it was during this time that she was awarded the 2011 Bush Fellowship,

which helped her establish the Trans Issues Work Group.

So she continued in her work establishing other groups and organizations.

So this is from women's history.org, quote, Jenkins won the 2011 Bush Fellowship

dedicated to transgender issues, helped establish the transgender issues

work group, and organized the City Council Summit on transgender equality and the problems

facing the transgender community in Minnesota, both in 2014. After 12 years, as a council aide,

Jenkins began curating the Transgender Oral History Project at the University of

Minnesota's John Nicholas Traynor Collection in gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender studies.

A primary focus of our curation is to grow the collection of trans narratives by recording oral histories.

And you know, we've talked about the importance of recording oral histories and how often we don't have enough of that because we've lost so much in the erasure.

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