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Stacie-Marie Laughton, a former New Hampshire lawmaker who is believed to be the first elected openly transgender lawmaker in U.S. history, recently pleaded guilty to child sex abuse charges in federal court.
According to WMUR, the 41-year-old ex-politician recently entered her plea in a Boston federal courtroom. The charges included sexual exploitation of children involving child sexual abuse materials.
Laughton, who authorities identify using feminine pronouns, is accused of working with her ex-girlfriend Lindsay Groves to exploit children at a daycare center called Creative Minds in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts.
Groves, a former employee of the daycare center, took nude photographs of children and sent them to Laughton in 2022, while Laughton served as a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives.
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According to an affidavit filed that year, authorities said that Groves took four photos of children under the age of 5.
Per the filing, Laughton and Groves “exchanged thousands of text messages” around the time that the images were sent. In the messages, Laughton expressed interest in having sex with the children, according to investigators.
When Laughton was elected as a state representative in 2012, she was considered to be the first openly transgender person elected to a state legislature. She was also the first one in New Hampshire’s history.
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However, Althea Garrison, a former Massachusetts state representative elected in 1992, was technically the first transgender elected lawmaker, though not openly. She did not come out until shortly after the 1992 election.
Laughton’s political career was marked by complications and legal troubles. Shortly after Laughton was elected in 2012, she announced that she would not serve due to previous felony-level credit card fraud convictions.
She tried to run again in 2014, but the New Hampshire Ballot Law Commission denied her request on the basis of the suspended sentence. In 2020, Laughton ran to represent the New Hampshire House of Representatives for District 31 and won.
She represented Nashua’s Ward 3 until 2022, when she resigned after being arrested over a stalking incident.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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