Although we spoke by phone, you could hear Kim Coco Iwamoto smiling.

The 56-year-old trans Hawaii state Representative-elect for Honolulu was speaking from her home office in the waterside Kaka’ako district, after a “walk and talk” with a soon-to-be fellow legislator through Ala Moana Beach Park on a predictably “beautiful” day on Oahu.

One topic of conversation: a ballot initiative in Hawaii to remove an outdated constitutional amendment granting authority to legislators to restrict marriage to a man and a woman — “bad juju,” in Iwamoto’s words.

By turns gracious and funny, and always grateful — she won her seat outright in the Democratic primary — the rep-elect was also laser-focused on her new job and clearly eager to get to work.

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LGBTQ Nation: You’ve been called the “Speaker Slayer” —

Rep.-elect Kim Coco Iwamoto: Oh! (laughing)

— for finally defeating 30-year incumbent Scott Saiki, the current Speaker of the Hawaii House. This year was your third run at him. In 2020 and 2022, you lost in Democratic primaries by just under 200 votes. This time you flipped that margin and then some when you defeated the Speaker by five points. What changed since your first face-off with Saiki?

Right? Well, I feel like the voters in my district got to know me. You know, each election, I didn’t give up, and I think that really helped.

50% of my district are condo owners, and he consistently failed to pass legislation, which is unusual when he’s the speaker of the House. They wanted stronger consumer protections, and they took his introducing legislation as just a show. He wasn’t interested in really helping them out, and so they were finally sick of that.

Another, smaller group would be the ward village mothers, who were trying to get a crosswalk put back that was removed during the speaker’s tenure — put back with lights — and he failed to do that in a timely manner. They all, they supported him last election because he held a press conference saying he was going to replace that crosswalk. And then two years later, it still wasn’t done, and so they’re like, “You know what? We gave you a chance, and we’re gonna support Coco this time.”

Same thing with dog owners. He promised them a dog park, held a press conference, and then he didn’t deliver on that.

He was working with developers and all the other people who contributed quite a bit of money to his campaign. He would take their money, and then he would give money to other legislators to make sure that they vote for him to be speaker. He lost touch with the voters.

You describe yourself as yonsei — 

That’s right. Very good research.

— or the fourth generation of Japanese ancestry in the U.S. By the way, I love how there’s a different word in Japanese specific to each generation removed from the original immigrants.

Right?

What’s the expectation for great-grandparents in Japanese families for yonsei like you, and what would your great-grandparents have thought of Kim Coco?

Well, I never met my great-grandparents, but my grandparents, specifically my grandmother, Florence Iwamoto, was very supportive of me as her trans granddaughter before she passed. She was very just loving and sweet, but that’s who she was. She was an amazingly loving matriarch of our family, so I feel like everyone followed her lead. I just generally have a very supportive family around these issues. I mean, my family’s been addressing my trans status since I was 12, formally, so it wasn’t like there were huge adjustments that needed to be made.

As a child, your mother and her family were forced into internment camps during World War II. Despite that, your uncles went from internment to enlisting and serving in the U.S. military. Donald Trump has equated those serving sentences or awaiting trial for sacking the U.S. Capitol on January 6 with Japanese detainees like your family. What’s the difference?

Well, there’s a clear difference. One is, I feel like my mother and my uncles and aunts and my grandparents, they were imprisoned for just being who they were, not for their behavior. And then many of them, as you mentioned, demonstrated their loyalty to the United States by putting their life on the line to defend America against the enemies during World War II. And I don’t think that that is the same situation as those who killed Americans at the Capitol and destroyed property there. I think there’s a huge, a huge distinction.

And of course, it’s insulting, and he says things with the intention of being insulting to certain groups and misleading other groups.

Last week, the Honolulu Liquor Commission settled with a gay bar there after some really damning evidence of systemic corruption and homophobia, including physical violence, stalking, and at least one death threat. One bar owner called the commission “completely rotten from the top to the bottom.” How widespread is that kind of corruption in government agencies in the state?

Well, actually, it’s all the way through the Legislature. We had two legislators — one senator, one representative — plead guilty to taking bribes to affect the way bills are handled. And then we had a chief of police who went to jail, and one of the lead prosecutors went to jail, and then another prosecutor was on trial for corruption.

So yes, there’s definitely a problem. And one of the problems is that oftentimes, because there’s various cultures at play here in Hawaii — where it’s, you don’t speak out, you don’t speak up — oftentimes people go along and they try to get along, and people are ready for a change. I think people are sick of this corruption, they’ve lost faith in the current leadership, and I feel like that also contributed to my victory.

They actually convened an anti-corruption commission specifically for the legislature that offered 30-something proposals, and even then they watered them down so that they were just ridiculously ineffective. So we have some unfinished business, to adopt reforms for good government, reforms in the way that we pass laws to minimize pay-to-play politics, and to return to a more representational democracy instead of it just being one or two people in the legislature pulling all the levers.

While you’re a Hawaii native, you bring lived experience in New York and San Francisco to your new job, including caring for abused kids in New York and living in the Tenderloin in San Francisco, an area notorious for homelessness and open-air drug markets. What did you learn in those places that your constituents will benefit from?

Homelessness has been an issue in Hawaii for many years. We’re the number one per capita homeless state in the nation. One of the things I learned living in the Tenderloin was that a lot of times your neighbors are unsheltered and living in a doorway of one of the stores in the neighborhood, and they actually keep an eye out on everyone on that block. When you kind of acknowledge them and treat them as a neighbor who’s looking out for your safety, they do start developing a relationship, as opposed to people who are coming in and out of that space who might pose a greater threat.

One other aspect is, a voter might say, “But why are these people hanging out so close to our building?” And I explain to them, “Because of safety. They hope that if somebody comes and attacks them, that you’ll hear their cries for help and you’ll call the police.” It’s dangerous to live out on the street, and that actually makes the residents who are sheltered in my district think differently about their neighbors on the sidewalk, like, “Oh, they’re coming closer because they need our protection,” you know? That kind of sharing makes sure that they understand what’s going on.

I also participate in the Point in Time Count, which happens all across the country, where one day a year we actually interview and survey every unsheltered resident of the state, and we ask them questions like, “Have you been homeless as a minor? Do you have a job? Do you identify as having a mental health challenge that keeps you from working or even attaining shelter or keeping yourself sheltered?” We ask all those questions because all that data is important, and then it helps us communicate that to other stakeholders, whether they’re a neighbor who is sheltered, or a lawmaker, and we can kind of see through the numbers of who our homeless population really is.

San Francisco and Hawaii share some attributes when it comes to politics. They are both overwhelmingly blue, and the political tension plays out between moderates and progressives. In San Francisco, there’s been a backlash against progressives in the city, evidenced in a really rough mayoral campaign right now. In Hawaii, it looks like progressives like you are on the upswing. Why is your time now in Hawaii?

Yes, and I think, again, it’s because of the level of corruption. So it’s so blue, but they want Democrats who are willing to take on the Democratic power establishment, which is what I’ve done and what others have done. That’s the thing we’re willing to say: “Hey, you don’t need to vote for Republicans to put a spotlight on it. In fact, it’s better if you elect a Democrat to hold a spotlight to other Democrats who are abusing their power, who are not being transparent, who are fueling pay-to-play politics instead of curtailing that kind of legal corruption.”

You support universal childcare and elder care for keiki and kapuna, aka youngsters and elders, two policies Kamala Harris is advocating for in some form. What other progressive goals do you share with Harris, and where do you think she’s not going far enough on the moderate to progressive spectrum?

Well, I think we also agree on more affordable housing. I’m trying to create an empty-home surcharge in Hawaii. It’s paradise here, so we have a lot of out-of-state investors, but we have 76,000 empty homes. So if we were collecting an empty-home surcharge from these investors, that would go a long way to provide state-funded Section 8 for a lot of the kupuna, the elders who are on fixed incomes, yet their rents keep increasing, and that is a recipe for increased homelessness among our most vulnerable population. So we need to see that coming and do something about it.

The legislature here did pass a resolution urging Israel to cease its attacks on Gaza, and so perhaps that is where we might differ, where I don’t think Harris is going far enough holding Israel accountable for how they’re using their weapons to hurt innocent civilians.

Like Harris, you’ve logged a lot of firsts in your career as an elected official. When you were elected to the Hawaii Board of Education for Oahu in 2006, you were the highest-ranking openly transgender elected official in the United States and the first openly transgender official to win statewide office there. When you take office on November 5, you’ll be the first trans legislator in Hawaii history, and you are the first challenger to defeat a sitting Democratic state Speaker of the House in U.S. history. Is being the first all it’s cracked up to be, or would you just rather win and go to Disneyland?

(Laughing) Well, not Disneyland, but yeah. You know what, it’s more important that we don’t focus on the first, but we focus on everyone else who comes. One of the things that most excited me about breaking through a ceiling is it’s actually created an opportunity for Hawaii to have its first woman as Madam Speaker of the House. With utmost certainty, it will be a woman leading the State House in the upcoming session, and I’m really happy that as a trans woman I was able to be that kind of ally to create an opportunity for a cisgender woman to break through a ceiling, as well.

Your progressive vision includes a “vibrant economy that offers green jobs, locally grown food and clean energy.” Hawaii has had first-hand experience with the climate crisis with drought and the Maui wildfires just over a year ago. What’s the single most important thing the world should do to address the climate crisis?

I think it’s reducing carbon emissions. Is that too broad? But can I say for Hawaii, specifically? Our lands are so fertile. We have enough land and water to grow all of our food. Right now, we import almost 90% of our produce, and we can grow it all here if we just allocated enough resources to support agriculture. That would obviously bring down carbon emissions if you’re not importing all of that food.  

One way you’d like to raise government revenue is collecting taxes on cannabis. When it comes to cannabis, places like Hawaii and California are legacy brands.

Right?

But weed remains illegal at the federal level, meaning there’s no interstate marketplace. Federal legalization could change that, vaulting Hawaii, I’m guessing, to the top of the national cannabis market. How important is making cannabis legal at the federal level for growers in Hawaii and for officials like you looking to raise revenue?

I think it’d be very important. One of my bills will be to issue grow permits to farmers who are currently growing produce for local consumption, so that they can grow — like, let’s say if you have nine acres of produce, they can grow one acre of cannabis. One acre of cannabis can produce a million dollars of profit a year if you’re using all the parts of the plant. And then you can actually subsidize growing food.  

And then, you’re right. We have a lot of visitors, around 10 million a year. Instead of people just buying chocolate-covered macadamia nuts (laughing), they could actually buy like, you know, Maui Wowie or Kona Gold pre-rolled doobies and take those home for friends and family. That could be an important boost to our economy.

In your time counseling youth in New York and as a member of the of the Board of Education in Hawaii, you’re well familiar with young people. Would you support mandatory national service for them, in the military, or some other form of public service of their choosing, like the Peace Corps or Teach for America?

Oh, yeah. I would definitely support — I guess it’s a form of social service conscription? I think that would make a lot of sense and it would help a lot of people.

You earned a B.A. in creative writing at San Francisco State, your J.D. at law school in New Mexico, you studied fashion merchandising in New York, and you had a stint as an au pair in Barcelona. Gun to your head, where would you live if you had to leave Hawaii tomorrow, and why?

I do love Barcelona. We’ll say Barcelona, it’s beautiful. And the people, I love the people. I spent a whole year in Europe, and Spain was the place that felt the most like Hawaii in terms of the way people treated each other, and just the overall vibe of that just felt very familiar.

Is there a Hawaiian word for that vibe?

Sure, it’s ohana. It’s aloha. Those are both words that come to mind.

You’ve written that gratitude is top of mind for you every day. Does that take regular form, like prayer or meditation or yoga? Do you have a spiritual routine?

No, it’s just part of my daily being. It’s just an awareness I have. Even when I’m sick, I’m like, “Oh, my God, imagine being sick and not having a house, or a home, or not having a toilet you can use.” It informs the way I experience everything. Even eating a delicious meal. There’s so many people going hungry. There’s so much that we all take for granted, and I’m constantly reminding myself of that.  

I went looking for evidence on social of a romantic relationship you might be in. Are you seeing anyone?

Yeah, no, I’m not. All my love goes to my daughter. You know, it’s funny, because when I was in high school, I went to an all-boys Catholic school for six years, and I told everyone there, I said, “When I get older, I’m going to be a nun.”

(Laughing)

You know? (Laughing) And that was my coming out. I was going to be a nun. And basically, I think I manifested that on some level.

And you’re maybe not a bride of Christ but married to your job.

Yeah! Or this idea of communities, of serving community and serving the people who are most vulnerable and educating the people who have enough to share. Just shifting the kind of awareness that I think Jesus might have done. And I certainly aspire to do as much as I can with the time that I have.

You mentioned your daughter. She’s adorable. Her name is Rory. How old is she, what’s her favorite campaign chore, and is she a volunteer or do you pay her by the hour?

(Laughing) Well, it would probably be against child labor laws, but she is 12 years old, and she’s a volunteer, and she’s really, really good at stamping postcards and stamping mailers to voters. This is the first campaign, actually, where she felt like she wanted to help. She actually had a point of view on many of the issues. She saw so many people helping me, she’s like, “I want to help, too.”

What are you most looking forward to when you start representing the constituents of Hawaii House District 25?

Manifesting the changes that the voters and residents in my district have spoken about. Making sure we have greater protections for consumers, whether they be condo owners or bicyclists — who need safer bike lanes — to make sure there’s more housing for our unsheltered neighbors. Making sure there’s housing vouchers for our kupuna who are scared of being kicked out of their affordable housing because their retirement income isn’t keeping up.

So, there’s a lot of needs, and I feel like we can make them happen. And I’m really excited about working with other legislators to make all of them happen quickly.  

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