by Anthony Gockowski
A DFL candidate who has the support of some of the party’s top officials wants to abolish the police and defended rioting during a June speech.
Leigh Finke won the DFL nomination for House District 66A in August and will likely win November’s election in the solidly-blue district.
Finke, who is transgender, previously worked for the ACLU, authored a guide for “LGBTQ+ Christian teens,” served on the Stonewall DFL board, and produced a documentary called “White Savior,” which explores “racism in the American church.”
Finke repeatedly called for abolishing the police throughout 2021, according to Facebook screenshots provided to Alpha News.
The first-time candidate then defended rioting during a June 26 speech at the United Methodist Hamline Church.
“[This] is a day that commemorates the first Pride at Stonewall. We heard the refrain about how the first Pride was a riot, one started by trans women of color no less. It’s true that trans women were at the front on Stonewall and it points to a fact that we cannot separate the movement for queer liberation from the street action of trans people,” Finke said.
Stonewall was “not the first time trans people rioted,” Finke noted, pointing to the Compton Cafeteria riot in the ’60s and another at Cooper Donuts in Los Angeles in 1959.
“And we rioted before that, and before that too,” Finke continued, saying this “street action goes all the way back to ‘eunuchs by choice’ that Jesus spoke of.”
The speech concluded with a warning that “there will be more riots” because of the “increase in violence” against trans people.
“I just don’t think there’s time right now for trans people to make speeches intended to make other people feel good. The world is changing too fast and in the midst of that change is a movement to make trans people illegal in this country, and they are winning,” Finke said.
“So I’m here to tell you that there will be more riots. We remember Stonewall as a riot and we know now that it was necessary. The next riots will be necessary too,” the Democrat concluded.
Rioters in Finke’s home state caused an estimated $500 million in damage to more than 1,500 businesses just two years ago after the death of George Floyd.
Finke’s campaign for Minnesota House has been endorsed by several incumbent Democrats, including Attorney General Keith Ellison, U.S. Sen. Tina Smith, and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, the running mate of Gov. Tim Walz.
“The kind of representation, the kind of wisdom and knowledge that she has, that she is going to bring to the Capitol … I know that I will have an ally, and that we will have a fighter and a champion,” Flanagan said in a glowing endorsement of Finke. “And I cannot wait until you get elected.”
Alpha News reached out to Finke for comment but did not receive a response.
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Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and reported for The Daily Caller.
Photo “Leigh Finke” by Alpha News.
