A top business executive who is transgender is mulling a run for governor of Vermont.
"I consider myself a very strong leader with a good history who happens to be transgender," Christine Hallquist, CEO of Vermont Electric Cooperative, told WPTZ-TV. "I'd ask the voters who may be struggling with the fact I am transgender to try to look beyond that. Try to look at what I've done."
Hallquist, who considers herself a "devout Christian" and regularly attends church, was a Republican until recently when she decided to run as a Democrat.
"I can't be a Republican today. It's like kissing the ring of your oppressor. The (national) GOP platform is anti-LGBT, and anti-other minorities," she said.
Hallquist, 61, will face off other Democrats in a primary and the winner will challenge incumbent GOP governor Phil Scott. If she wins, she would become the first transgender governor in the country.
Married with three children, Hallquist came out as transgender to her family five years ago, telling them she wanted to live more authentically.
"When the truth is in a box, you're not living your truth," she told The Stowe Reporter in a 2016 interview.