Brianna Titone () is an American politician and scientist, currently serving as a member of the

Colorado House of Representatives The Colorado House of Representatives is the lower house of the Colorado General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Colorado. The House is composed of 65 members from an equal number of constituent districts, with each distr ...

from the 27th district. She serves in the 74th

Colorado General Assembly The Colorado General Assembly is the state legislature of the State of Colorado. It is a bicameral legislature that was created by the 1876 state constitution. Its statutes are codified in the ''Colorado Revised Statutes'' (C.R.S.). The ses ...

and is the first openly

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

state legislator elected in Colorado and the 4th elected in the United States.Andrew Kenney
"Colorado’s first transgender legislator: How Brianna Titone flipped a Republican district"
''

Denver Post ''The Denver Post'' is a daily newspaper and website published in Denver, Colorado. As of June 2022, it has an average print circulation of 57,265. In 2016, its website received roughly six million monthly unique visitors generating more than 13 ...

'', November 10, 2018

Early life and education

Titone was born and raised in the

Hudson Valley The Hudson Valley (also known as the Hudson River Valley) comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York. The region stretches from the Capital District including Albany and Troy south to ...

region of

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. Titone attended the

State University of New York at New Paltz The State University of New York at New Paltz (SUNY New Paltz or New Paltz) is a public university in New Paltz, New York. It traces its origins to the New Paltz Classical School, a secondary institution founded in 1828 and reorganized as an a ...

from 1996 to 2002 where she earned bachelor's degrees in

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ear ...

and

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

.Marianne Goodland
Meet Brianna Titone, Colorado’s first transgender lawmaker
November 24, 2018, ''The Gazette'' She later earned a master's degree in

geochemistry Geochemistry is the science that uses the tools and principles of chemistry to explain the mechanisms behind major geological systems such as the Earth's crust and its oceans. The realm of geochemistry extends beyond the Earth, encompassing the e ...

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system's ...

, and another master's degree in

information and communications technology Information and communications technology (ICT) is an extensional term for information technology (IT) that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless signals) and computers, ...

at the

University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private university, private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Mountain States, Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is ...

. At Stony Brook, her master's thesis was on

rare-earth element The rare-earth elements (REE), also called the rare-earth metals or (in context) rare-earth oxides or sometimes the lanthanides (yttrium and scandium are usually included as rare earths), are a set of 17 nearly-indistinguishable lustrous silve ...

and

thorium Thorium is a weakly radioactive metallic chemical element with the symbol Th and atomic number 90. Thorium is silvery and tarnishes black when it is exposed to air, forming thorium dioxide; it is moderately soft and malleable and has a high me ...

speciation of fossils and sediments of the

Green River Formation The Green River Formation is an Eocene geologic formation that records the sedimentation in a group of intermountain lakes in three basins along the present-day Green River in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. The sediments are deposited in very fine ...

. Some of her research was conducted at

Brookhaven National Laboratory Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory located in Upton, Long Island, and was formally established in 1947 at the site of Camp Upton, a former U.S. Army base and Japanese internment c ...

using the

National Synchrotron Light Source The National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in Upton, New York was a national user research facility funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Built from 1978 through 1984, and officially shut down o ...

X-26A and X-18B beamlines.

Career

Before entering politics, Titone worked as a mining consultant, geologist, and software developer. For seven years, beginning in high school, she was a volunteer firefighter.

Politics

In 2016, Titone joined the

Jefferson County, Colorado Jefferson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 582,910, making it the fourth-most populous county in Colorado. The county seat is Golden, and the most populous city is Lakewood. ...

Democratic

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

caucus and was elected its Secretary/Treasurer,Mark Harden
Brianna Titone’s opponent concedes; Colo.’s first transgender legislator elected
November 11, 2018, ''The Gazette'' and later appointed a "captain at large". She declared her run for

HD27 in December 2017. She received 50.4% of the vote to win the election with 24,957 votes out of 49,475, a margin of 439. She serves on the Health and Insurance Committee, the Rural Affairs and Agriculture Committee, and the Joint Technology Committee. She was also appointed to the Energy Council. In the 2nd regular session of the 72nd General Assembly, she worked to bring back and pass the bill banning the "Gay or Trans Panic Defense". The bill passed on a margin of 98-1-1. She won re-election in the most competitive House race in Colorado earning 29,566 (48.7%) of 60,708 votes against her two opponents in the November 2020 election. In the 2022 general election, Titone was re-elected with around 57.7% of the votes cast. Later in November, Titone was selected to serve as caucus chair of the state House majority which is a first for a trans lawmaker to serve in an elected leadership position in a General Assembly.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Titone, Brianna Democratic Party members of the Colorado House of Representatives LGBT state legislators in Colorado Women state legislators in Colorado Transgender politicians Transgender scientists Transgender women People from Arvada, Colorado Year of birth missing (living people) Living people State University of New York at New Paltz alumni American LGBT scientists 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians 21st-century American LGBT people