Betsy Driver elected to borough council, first openly intersex woman in US

Betsy Driver. Photo: Curtis Leeds, TapInfo

On 7 November, Betsy Driver was elected to the borough of Flemington, New Jersey, becoming the second openly intersex person elected to public office. This is a national first for the US, and Betsy becomes the second person public about their intersex status, following Tony Briffa of Hobsons Bay in Australia. Curtis Leeds, for TapInfo, writes:

Driver, a Democrat, won the election along with independent Michael Harris. Both are newcomers who unseated two incumbent candidates. They ran on local issues, each critical of what they saw as a lack of transparency by the existing Borough Council and a failure to come up with a plan to save the aging landmark Union Hotel on Main Street here. Even though it was a crowded race, many in the borough think Driver won more votes than any other Flemington Borough candidate ever.

But Driver notes her election contains a “footnote.” She believes her victory makes her “only the second person in the world who is open about their intersex status to be elected to public office.”

A woman with CAH and a survivor of both non-consensual surgeries and cancer, Betsy Driver was the founder of Bodies Like Ours, the first online peer support site for intersex people, in 2001. She later co-founded Intersex Awareness Day. Congratulations, Betsy!