Trans mayor whines about being ‘bullied’ out of office despite rampant crime, homelessness
A California mayor who came out as transgender after being elected to office is facing a recall vote — blaming it on transphobic “bullies” despite outrage over rampant homelessness and crime.
Raúl Ureña, 26, was elected mayor of the border town of Calexico with 70% of the vote in 2020 — before coming out as transgender and gender fluid following her re-election victory in 2022, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The mayor — who accepts “all the pronouns,” with a preference for “she” — went from office attire of suit and pants for a penchant for low-cut dresses showing off a still-hairy chest, proudly saying she looks “sexy as hell” in office.
While turning heads with the transformation, Ureña also sparked backlash as crime ran rampant in the border town and homeless encampments sprang up in the downtown — with feces left on the sidewalks.
The mayor and her and key ally City Councilman Gilberto Manzanarez face a recall vote Tuesday for leaving the downtown a crime-ridden eyesore.
The petition claims the mayor “has proven poor leadership with open and public indecency and intoxication shared on social media with absolute reckless disregard for accountability towards families with children,” the LA Times points out.
However, Ureña blames it on “tried and tested, predictable transphobia.”
Ureña noted that many of her detractors regularly share photos of her and call her scandalous, though she thinks she looks “sexy as hell” in the pictures.
The effort to remove her also began with one woman, Rebecca Lemon, who was later caught on video screaming at Ureña’s father that she is “not a daughter, he’s a son!”
“He’s not a woman! He’s not a woman!” she cried out as she was seen being escorted away by police.
Ureña said Lemon’s actions that day were illegal, unlawful and “something you don’t do to a human being,” Ureña told the Daily Mail, adding that she thinks Lemon “is a big bully.”
“She barks like a bulldog and is bigger than me, but I’m not afraid,” she said.
“I can’t be afraid of those kinds of incidents. I have a particularly difficult city to govern.”
Councilman Manzanarez also agreed that the recall effort is the result of transphobia, claimed that constituents have called the mayor slurs.
“We’re a city where a lot of our populations are señoras who are Catholic,” he explained.
“Mostly the town is socially conservative.”
But former Calexico Mayor Maritz Hurtado, who is leading the campaign to oust Ureña and Manzanarez, said supporters of the recall vote just want to hold them accountable for their decisions — which she claims left the downtown a crime-ridden eyesore.
“We’re losing business because people do not want to come here because it’s disgusting,”Hurtado, 58, told the LA Times.
She said Ureña and Manzanarez have dismissed business leaders’ concerns, and are disrespectful to police.
“They are some of the biggest supporters of Black Lives Matter in Imperial County,” she told the LA Times.
“You guys are anti-police? We are a border city. You don’t belong here.”
Ureña countered that Hurtado, who served on the City Council from 2010 through 2018, is the one to blame for the city’s problems.
“It’s as simple as power,” Ureña said.
“We’ve de-established a lot of establishment and status quo interests ingrained in the city for many decades.”
