Transgender Lawmaker Arrested For Stalking A Woman
New Hampshire’s first elected openly transgender state representative was arrested for stalking a woman. State Rep. Stacie Laughton, whose birth name is Barry Charles Laughton, Jr., was charged with stalking a woman in violation of a restraining order.
From NH Journal:
With control of the New Hampshire House just two seats from their grasp and the recounts going their way, state Democrats are staying silent on the behavior of Nashua Rep. Stacie Laughton, a repeat offender who was arrested over the weekend in a domestic violence-related stalking case.
Laughton, New Hampshire’s first transgender elected official, spent the weekend at Valley Street Jail after she was arrested for allegedly violating a domestic violence order by stalking another person. Hudson police did not provide details about the misdemeanor charges when contacted this week, out of a desire to protect the identity of the alleged victim.
Democrats, who claim to be advocates for victims of domestic violence, have refused to respond to repeated requests for comment about Laughton’s case or condemn her actions.
This apparently not the first time Laughton violated the restraining order. According to a report by the feminist website Reduxx, Laughton was arrested in September for trying to contact the woman.
As NH Journal reports, this is not the first time Laughton, who was re-elected as a “Libertarian Democrat” earlier this month, has gotten in trouble with the law.
And Laughton’s criminal history is far from victimless. She was convicted in 2008 of credit card fraud for stealing from a person in Laconia. In 2015, Laughton was charged with calling in a bomb threat at the Southern New Hampshire Medical Center hospital in Nashua. These charges were later dropped as Laughton claimed she was suffering from a mental health crisis at the time.
Last year, as a sitting state representative, Laughton was charged with several counts of sending false texts to the city’s 911 system. Laughton claimed she did not send the texts in question, and the state and city party did seemingly nothing about her continuing legal adventures.
Laughton’s restraining order was issued in July so there was plenty of time for Democrats to do something about this before the primaries and the midterm elections. But Democrats did nothing. So much for the party of women.
One Democrat though is speaking up. State Rep. Timothy Horrigan tweeted, “She’s gotten into a lot of trouble over the years & she keeps getting into trouble, but she’s basically a good person. She’s not violent or abusive, or harmful to anyone other than herself.”
Today we learned that stalking is not “violent or abusive, or harmful to anyone other than” the stalker. The most recent study on the links between stalking and murder showed that 94% of the murders studied stalking behavior had been shown by the killer. In addition, stalking leads to all sorts of mental problems for the victim. This is not a victimless crime.
In New Hampshire, there is no clear procedure for removing a lawmaker who is accused or even convicted of a criminal offense.
