Kate Donnally, an openly LGBTQ Vermont state representative serving her second term, announced she would step down from her House seat on January 27, explaining the reason in her regular column for the News & Citizen was because the “work became an impossible juggling act.”
“I have wanted so badly to find that elusive sweet spot that allows me to continue to do this work that I love without sacrificing my mental health and the health of my marriage and family,” she wrote.
“I have finally come to the painful conclusion that such a balance simply does not exist. It ultimately became a choice between the Legislature and my life as I know it.”
Homophobia from the political right was among the “brutally difficult” pressures of her job, as she indicated to VTDigger, which quoted her at a debate leading up to last year’s election:
In the time that I’ve served, over two years, I’ve been directly targeted by the Vermont GOP. I’ve had my face plastered over social media with the word ‘extremism’ written under it. It’s been shared on social media with the hashtag ‘groomer,’ essentially meaning that, because I support the care of queer and trans youth, I am somehow a child abuser. … These things place my life at risk. And when I talk to people in the state Legislature who are queer-identified, who are Black and brown, they all have their own stories of this kind of treatment.
Her seat will be filled by appointment from Republican Governor Phil Scott, though, as VTDigger noted, it’s customary for the governor to select someone from the same party as the departing member.
Read the complete VTDigger article here.
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