Maebe A Girl, the Trans Politician Next Door
The last time she ran for Congress she got nearly 30% of the vote. She is a force and a shining Silver Lake star.
Smack dab in an era of unusual politicians and politics, Maebe A. Girl is far less outrageous than some will have you know.
Girl grew up in a stereotypical suburb of Illinois sprinkled with corn fields and half-dead malls, came out at 16, was loved for who she was, and after living in LA for a number of years has become wildly popular in her neighborhood of Silver Lake.
The 6'2" drag queen and longest-termed member of the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council, is even taller in heels. She is a force, a true progressive, and as you will hear, an open book. What she wants and strives for politically isn’t that different than what most Democrats claim they want.
Click the play button below to hear the entire conversation or keep scrolling for a few of the edited highlights.
Tony Pierce: I drove you once in my Uber and it was like driving a celebrity. LA is filled with celebrities but there’s only one Maebe A. Girl.
Maebe A Girl: That’s true!
You are running for Congress. Again. This is your third time. The last time you ran, you got 28% of the vote?
28.9% And that was in the general election. And thank you for bringing up that number, because that number… just yesterday I got notified that I was in an LA Times article.
It was for the California 30th congressional district race. The article was sort of acting as a candidate guide, or at least that’s how they framed it.
I was really aggravated because well, first of all, I was pleased that I was in the cover image: they listed eight candidates — pictures of eight of the candidates — and there’s 15 people running in this race because it’s an open seat this year.
But I was so annoyed with the LA Times because as I’m scrolling through the article, I noticed that a lot of the other candidates, and particularly the establishment corporate candidates, all got a very nice, chunky, descriptive paragraph about who they are, and what their accomplishments are.
And then you get to my name, and it was a single line. And all it said was “Maebe, a trans activist, ran against Schiff in 2022, and got less than 30% of the votes.” And that’s it.
It was such a deliberately negative framing. If they were an unbiased organization, they would have said “around 30%,” but when you frame something as “got less than 30%,” yes, it’s framed in a very negative way.
So I had to call them out and correct them and say, look, I was running against an incumbent last year — not just any incumbent — but one of the most well-funded Democrats in the entire United States.
He’s an incumbent who’s been in office for 22 years, who had a campaign war chest at the time of more than $15 million.
And so anybody who is running in the race this year, if they had the audacity or political courage to challenge Adam Schiff, any of them would have been lucky to get, “less than 30% of the vote.”
And, by the way, a trans person.
Hello! We ended up receiving more than 60,000 votes. I don’t know 60,000 people, but there’s more than 60,000 people that believe in what we’re fighting for.
Was your war chest less than $15 million?
Oh, it was significantly less. By the way, it was the first time that a trans non-binary person has ever advanced to a general election for a seat in the US Congress.
We only ended up having raised around $33,000, and so in other words, we were outspent over 500-to-1. And we were still able to earn almost 30% of the votes.
I like Adam Schiff. I think a lot of people in LA do. And he’s on TV every day.
And that’s probably why you like him.
That could be. But I’m saying, if I was running against a guy who is likable and on TV every day — and I’m not on TV every day — and I get 30%? That is a giant number!
Oh, absolutely. He’s on MSNBC every other day.
For me, it was really challenging running against Adam Schiff for my first two election cycles.
To back up a moment, I decided to challenge Adam Schiff, back in 2019, for the 2020 race, because I took a hard look.
I had just recently been elected to the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council, it was the first time that a drag queen had ever been elected to any public office in the United States.
So yes, I’m a trans person, I’m also a drag performer. I was really excited that my community voted for me for a local position, not because I’m a trans person, not because I’m a drag queen, but because they liked the ideas that I was bringing to the table.
Who would you say is the most recognizable trans person in California?
Well, I think unfortunately, one of the most well-known trans people is Caitlyn Jenner. She really caused a stir when she came out.
And I respect her as a trans person.
I do not respect her from a political point of view. And especially from this idea of… she’s very anti trans.
It doesn’t really make sense to me.
I know you’re not the representative of all trans people, just like I’m not of all Cubs fans. But you are on my couch right now and I’m very ignorant to this world. Not that I want to be, in fact, I don’t want to be, which is why I invited you on my couch.
So if you don’t mind…
I don’t mind.
Among the trans community that you know of, or in your heart, is this normal for a trans person to be self-hating?
No, it is not. It’s not normal whatsoever. And I think the only reason this person really maintains these far-right views of trans issues is because Caitlyn Jenner is a Republican. It’s also hypocritical.
You know, she has competed in women’s golf tournaments and now she is saying trans women shouldn’t compete in sports…
Let kids play sports. If you were a queer youth, which I was once a queer youth — I already know how polarizing and ostracizing that is to begin with.
Then for somebody to come in and say, “you can’t use the bathroom.” “You can’t use the locker room.” “You can’t play sports.” I mean, it’s even more ostracizing and now it’s coming from authority. It’s coming from adults.
And as somebody who experienced a lot of bullying as a queer youth, I don’t want to see any queer youth ever have to experience that again, and that ties into what we’ve been seeing happening in the local school districts in LAUSD and in the Glendale Unified School District, about this sort of battle for… they call it parental rights.
But they are only calling it parental rights when it’s parental rights of the children of bigots.
It’s never the parental rights of children of queer family members who have children, who want to know that they are sending their child to a school that is going to be welcoming and accepting of them.
And that’s why we like seeing a rainbow flag. It signifies, “oh, this is a safe place. This isn’t some somewhere I have to worry about existing as myself.”
Should I have a rainbow flag?
You do right behind you! The Bernie poster has a big rainbow on it.
I didn’t realize that! I just thought it was pretty.
It is pretty, also.
I never equated that as a rainbow flag.
It’s definitely a rainbow flag. It might not specifically be queer —
But I guess — it’s even got the baby blue, which is for our trans friends.
Yes, exactly.
Do you prefer the more modern flag?
Oh, yeah, I love the new flag because it’s not just gay and lesbian, but it also exemplifies trans people are a part of this community and also intersex people and people of color are also part of the community.
It’s overall, to me, just as a welcoming symbol, whether or not you are a queer person. It signifies we love everyone here. You’re safe.
Many parents of gay kids say, “we always knew that you were gay.” Were your parents like that?
Yeah. My parents, my relatives in general.
They were like, “you never played football, you always played with the dolls?”
Actually. It’s funny. I did play football in high school.
What?
But that was also kind of a mask that I was wearing.
What position did you play?
I did both offense and defense. I was an offensive center.
You were a big boy?
I was.
Your Wikipedia says you’re 6'-2" but you don’t seem 6'-2".
I am actually 6'-2 1/2".
And that’s without heels.
Did you enjoy football?
I hated it. I hated it. It was just too aggressive and too physical for me.
I will say I did it mostly because my mom had these dreams of me being a football player. So I wanted to make my mom happy. And again, I thought it was a good beard.
I think there has only been one openly-gay NFL player who came out. I may have his football card up here.
Yes “who came out,” because it’s such a hyper-masculine —
And his career was ruined as soon as he did that. And that’s fucked up which is why I got his football card.
I appreciate people’s courage because I want that in my own life. I struggled to be more courageous. And so I appreciate your courage.
Hear the entire conversation here where we talk Silver Lake, the Sunset Junction Street Fair, the Win-Dow burgers, Shake Shake and every gay bar I can think of in Silver Lake.
Follow Maebe on Twitter, IG, and her campaign website.
How great was Maebe? When you stoke us, you’re saying — “Tony these people are fascinating. Thank you for showing me how much I have in common with a trans politico!
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Music and music supervision by Jordan Katz.
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