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Phillipe Cunningham (born July 7th, 1982) is the city councilperson for Minneapolis Ward 4 and one of the first openly transgender men to be elected to public office in the United States.[2][3][4] In the Minneapolis City Council election, 2017, Cunningham won over 20-year incumbent Barb Johnson by 157 votes.[5][6] Cunningham identifies as black, queer, and trans.[7]

Early Life and Education [edit source]

Cunningham was born in Streator, Illinois, where he lived until he was 18.[8] Being a single child, his father was a tractor mechanic/builder - 40 years in the Union and was 1 of 16 Alabama raised children before living in Illinois. His mother was a dry cleaning employee and was one of 5 children - raised by a single mother. (done) He studied at Mills College and Southern Illinois University Carbondale before transferring to DePaul University[8] where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Chinese studies.[9] He transitioned during his junior year at DePaul,[8] having been inspired by the life and work of Lou Sullivan.[10]

Prior to his election to public office, Cunningham worked as a special education teacher in the South Side of Chicago[5] and for the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation. He also worked as Senior Policy Aide and Advisor for Education, Youth Success, Racial Equity, and LGBTQ Rights for the Office of the Mayor of Minneapolis.[9] On July 10th of 2015 Cunningham married Lane Cunningham, an IT professional at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities when same sex marriage was made legal. They had met prior at the Victory 44, Erick Harcey, who was the owner of the restaurant,became and was a popular hangout area at the time. It is considered to be cozy and vibrant and its name was considered a metaphor for the “Northside” which was the Minneapolis district.

On November 7, 2017, Cunningham became the second of three openly trans men to be elected to public office in the United States. Jay Irwin was elected to the Ralston School Board in Nebraska the year prior.[11] Tyler Titus was elected to the Erie School Board in Pennsylvania the same year as Cunningham. Cunningham and Andrea Jenkins (both on the Minneapolis City Council) are the first openly trans people of color to be elected to a city council anywhere in the United States.[2] Ward 4 sits in the northwest corner of Minneapolis, above Lowry Avenue and below 53rd Avenue North. Xerxes Avenue provides its western border; theMississippi marks the east. The Minneapolis’ Department of Community Planning and Economic Development shows that it is rich in diversity; making it 57 percent people of color or indigenous residents. Campaign and policy [edit source]

2018-present

Community Involvement

Cunningham campaigned on a platform of stable, affordable housing for people living in the Northside of Minneapolis.[5] While working for Mayor Betsy Hodges' office, he was an advocate for racial equality, education, and LGBTQ rights.[1] His primary focus is to address the challenges in ward 4, which was to expand what he calls “community wealth.” Community wealth is defined as two tracks, “success for the overall community – safety, clean air and water, housing, jobs, parks, transportation – and success for each person in it.”

The first priority was to develop small businesses in the area. Compared to the Minneapolis average household income, the Ward 4 is more than $9,000 less per year per capita income. Making the average household income more than $12,000 below the city average. By investments in entrepreneurs from the Ward, they are increasing home ownership, improvements towards the Ward’s financial stability, and bringing access to more job training. By collaborating with the community, the visioning process has become a way to share and define shared vision among the neighborhood. The conjoined plans serve as a blueprint. They have been a way to inform the City Council of Cunningham’s progress as the 4th Ward’s representative since he is held accountable for the success of the community.

Youth Outreach

Developed and implemented an original out of school time program curriculum to build skill sets in professionalism and other soft skills needed in today’s world like boundaries and consent, bicultural efficacy, life skills to better prepare for transition to independence, positive cultural identity and pride, and cross-cultural leadership. Created a youth-oriented public policy advocacy framework to empower youth voice in our democracy. Served as a committee member of "Vote YES for Kids" Minneapolis Public Schools referendum campaign. Through the referendum, it has translated to $74M which has accounted for approiximately 13% of MPS’ budget during the 2016-2017 school year. Cunningham still engages in youth work (on a volunteer basis) with LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness as an Out! Group co-facilitator at Youthlink as well.

During the 4th precinct occupation, Phillipe coordinated with the Parks, Park Police, Hennepin County, Minneapolis Public Schools, and the City to ensure youth resources were aligned and in place to support young people processing grief and anger while also engaging in their 1st amendment rights.

You have a lot of great info here. I think it'll be easier to format one this is actually added to the wiki page. Just a reminder to format the citation with the numbers at the end of your sentences. I think it might be helpful to also gather thoughts into complete sentences or paragraphs. I found it difficult to follow along sometimes--- understandable that formatting is super funky on here. Otherwise, great work! looking forward to the final product!!

Tess Fonder peer review: It seems like there's a lot of good information here, but the formatting is definitely confusing in terms of context. It looks like a good start with the info that you already have and should be good at bulking up the article once its formatted and in the context of the article. Also citations need to be formatted.