Jamaica transgender candidate for 2021 elections
(Jamaica Observer) A 29year-old political activist is seeking to become the first openly transgender Member of Parliament (MP) to sit in the House of Representatives.
Rich Richards has said that he will run as an independent candidate in the St Andrew North Eastern constituency in the next general election, constitutionally due in 2021. The constituency is presently represented by Delroy Chuck of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).
Richards, who broke ranks with the People’s National Party on Monday, said he had been a member of the party since he was 15 years old.
“There has been a change of plan. As of today (Monday) I am in the process of putting together a campaign team. I’m going to be running as an independent candidate. It’s complicated; it’s very complicated and people [try] to be politically correct when it comes to LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning or queer) people speaking out. It gets challenging but I will be a candidate in the next general election,” Richards said in an interview with the Jamaica Observer.
He was responding to questions regarding his decision to run on his own ticket.
Richards said he began as a constituency representative for the PNP’s youth organisation, before moving on to a campaign officer for John-Paul White, who ran unsuccessfully in St Andrew North Eastern.
“I was booted off that campaign by [someone] because of the obvious. I was a part of another campaign team, I was the front-runner on another campaign team organising the workers’ list and all of that. I’ve sat on the executive of the constituency for the party as the vice-chair and as the youth organisation’s representative.