As you take advantage of this three-day weekend in honor of Memorial Day, to work in your flower beds, go hiking, boating, or a trip to the movies, please also take a moment to reflect on all those people who have died while serving in the armed forces. If you know one or two, please bring them to mind this day. If you have access to their place of interment, please consider decorating it with flowers. If you don't know anyone, please consider making a part of your planned activities this weekend, a visit to a war memorial, or a graveyard, thinking of the families who lost a young member who never returned home from serving their country.

It's increasingly becoming a cultural wedge issue in the 2016 election. The GOP put it in their national platform, presidential candidates are talking about it, people are protesting Target stores, and now the Governor of Utah has decided that the most vulnerable among us don't deserve civil rights. We're talking about, of all things, the right to pee--and more specifically the right for transgender individuals to pee.

My name is Sophia Hawes-Tingey and I am running for Midvale City Council District 2
(http://www.sophiahawes.com/).

Since I have been serving on the Midvale Community Council, I have learned that this district is in need. It needs someone who is a little bit more about community, and who is a little bit less about business. It needs a leader who listens, a leader who cares, and a leader who has the resources and willpower to balance the needs of the community with the needs of businesses more fairly.

For Immediate Release

Contact: Sophia Hawes-Tingey

Candidate for Midvale City Council District 2

[email protected]

(801) 658-0545

NATION’S LARGEST LGBT PAC CHAMPIONS HAWES-TINGEY VICTORY

Salt Lake City, UT, April 20, 2015. National LGBT group, Victory Fund (Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund), has announced its endorsement of Sophia Hawes-Tingey in her race for Midvale City Council. If elected, Hawes-Tingey would be the first-ever openly transgender person elected as a public servant in Utah.

Happy Spring! Already the tree in my backyard is blooming, the flowers in the front garden are blooming, there is green everywhere, the temperatures are climbing into the 70s and soon it will be time to plant the vegetables in the back garden.

This has been an incredibly busy and exciting month. I got a new job, a new logo, witnessed history in the making, was broadsided on the way to a city council meeting, and connected with over 300 residents in Midvale. Meanwhile Top Golf's announcement that it is moving to Midvale is generating excitement.

A New Job

Back in January, practically everyone at my last company was laid off when the company failed its rebid with the Defense Logistics Agency by being underbid by IBM. Most of us finally landed a new position, and I found a 6-month to two year contract programming opportunity at a company called Unishippers in Murray, and a 7 minute drive from my home in Midvale. The good news is that I am contracting at a rate comparable to my old salary and am able to spend` more time focusing on service to the local community. My employer was kind enough to let me have some time off to be active up on the hill. After 6 weeks of unemployment, I'm drawing a paycheck again, even though I have to wait until May 1 for health insurance to kick in at the cost of just over $700 per month through my contract company, Kelly.

January has been a month of change and increased activity, starting with elections on the Community Council, and interweaving in citizen activism for the 45 days that the legislature is in session. I am orders of magnitude more involved that I was this time last year.

Secretary

The Community Council of Midvale elected their executive committee. I was invited to step outside my comfort zone by being nominated and unanimously elected to the post of Secretary. I am honored to serve in that capacity. Please join me in congratulating the rest of the 2015 executive committee:

- Floyd Tarbet, Chairperson
- Serafina Ochoa, First Vice Chair
- Larry Laxman, Second Vice Chair
- Bruce Boggess, Treasurer

Happy New Year! I hope you had merry holidays and were able to reconnect with the things of value in your life. For me, with the help of a new friend, the month began by reconnecting with myself, progressed through reconnecting with my spouse and the LGBT community, and finally making connections with the community of Midvale. This month has gone from respite to celebration to tragedy, with valuable lessons and commitments to take forward into the new year.

A Painting Lesson

Never before had I been to a Ladies Night Out Paint Lesson. Apparently they hold them every week in Salt Lake City, and I don't consider myself much of a painter. To get my mind off of politics and advocacy (which is no mean feat), Janet Rose took me out as a Christmas present to the Spaghetti Warehouse at Trolley Station after work in early December. I will be the first to admit that the only painting that I have done prior has been paint-by-number with oils, and that not very frequently or very recent. I tried sketching when I was younger, and I did okay with inanimate objects, but living things just refused to be captured by me when I set to put them on paper.

So this was an opportunity that took me outside of my comfort zone, and it was with acrylics around women who do this for a hobby. I followed the step-by-step instructions for creating the flower, which looked so real on the board, while chatting about things going on in our lives, which helped me to push down some of the anxiety. When I finally started getting comfortable, and seeing other people diverge on their creative path, I decided to make my slight detour and do my petals in purple instead of orange. Yes, it wound up looking a bit like a Van Gogh when I was done, but I have since learned that it's best to work with the expression that winds up being reflected than trying to force it into your original vision.

Election Day

Election day has come and gone. It's time to pull in those yard signs, and prepare for the winter. Whether the people you were rooting for won or lost, the important part is that you participated in the process. This year I participated more that I have in any other, and plan to participate more next year. In what way, you are just going to have to wait one more month while I prepare for my announcement and we start solidifying plans.

This year, I was responsible for hosting the Hospitality Suite for the Stonewall Democrats. It was set up as a comforting and welcoming space where people could just come and relax to get away from it all. While some of my favorites didn't win this year, I know they will be back, and I'll be ready to support them when the time comes.

During the speeches, I was approached by a young reporter who wanted to know who I was and why I looked familiar. A thousand reasons popped into my head, and before the short conversation was over, she said that she'd be keeping an eye out for me.

I just read in the news this morning that an LDS church was burglarized in Midvale, and the police investigating it are considering it a hate crime. One window was broken, and the couple arrested said they hated the church and wanted to destroy the building.

Please, people, we need to respect people's houses of worship, whether you agree with their religion being on your spiritual path or not. Any crime done against another simply because you do not like their values is a hate crime and needs to be treated as such, with stiffer penalties.

This reminds me of the Unitarian Church massacre in Texas, where a group of people were slain because the church supported same-sex marriage.

Contact: Sophia Hawes                                                                     FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Cell Phone: 502/821-3357

Email: [email protected]

LOVE BECOMES LEGAL IN UTAH

Two Transgender Lesbian Women Become First Such Legally Recognized Union in Utah   

On October 6, 2014 Danilynn Louise Tingey and Sophia Jean Hawes-Tingey became the first legally recognized trans-lesbian couple in the state of Utah!

Danielle Sainte-Marie, a local Utah Poetress, Author, and good friend of the Tingeys, writes,

“Today, the Supreme Court decided that the heartfelt love all gay, lesbian, and transgender people feel for someone special, is something worthy of recognition, celebration, and justice.