“There were attacks from inside the House, including members on the floor using their time on the floor to attack me. There was the national hate group, Gays Against Groomers, that attacked me. And they’re sort of built on a national campaign against me… that never really slowed down,” Minnesota state Rep. Leigh Finke (D) tells LGBTQ Nation.

Finke has been the target of a right-wing campaign that falsely accused her of supporting pedophilia. There is no evidence for this assertion. “I was targeted. I received death threats. I had regular meetings with the Sergeant at Arms and the state troopers at the Capitol about security. My protocol on my email and voicemails were changed.”

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Finke has been in the spotlight ever since she was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2022. Representing District 66A in northern St. Paul, she comes from an area that’s booming with queer people. As the first out trans state legislator in Minnesota, Finke has made history while being in a position where she can model herself as someone truly belonging to her constituency.

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Those she represents can see this in everything from the policies she’s passed to the way she dresses. Standing out from her colleagues, she is often seen with dyed hair – pink or purple – tattooed arms and black leather jackets over skirts and dresses. She makes sure she stands out so that queer people can see themselves in someone who can enact meaningful change in their state.

Finke comes from an activist background, having previously worked for the state’s ACLU chapter and as a documentarian. Some of her most notable work while in office includes passing the famous trans refuge bill that guarantees safe passage for those fleeing other states for the persecution of gender-affirming care. She codified trans rights under the Minnesota Human Rights Act, secured millions in funds for HIV care, and helped push through a bill that protects homeless LGBTQ+ individuals by creating more inclusive shelters.

Her political stardom has come with both benefits and drawbacks, however. While she’s been someone that the politically left-leaning members of the state can rely on and has been named as one of USA Today’s Women of the Year in 2023, she’s also been the target of much vitriol for existing as a trans woman in politics.

“There is a segment of the Republican party in Minnesota that is using my work on trans protections as a liability against those who are supporting my work. It’s a really similar thing that we’ve seen in the national landscape where people attack me. They call me, they use offensive terms and dehumanizing language and misgendering, and then they attack individuals who have supported the work that I’m doing at the Capitol.”

Finke fought to take down outdated wording from the 1993 Human Rights Act, as she believed it could be interpreted in ways that could attack LGBTQ+ individuals. 

The wording itself, “sexual orientation does not include a physical or sexual attachment to children by an adult,” appears innocuous by excluding pedophilia. However, Finke and LGBTQ+ rights advocates recognized that, with groups like Gays Against Groomers and far-right Republican politicians like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), those looking to oppose LGBTQ+ rights may unjustly label a queer person as a “pedophile” without any actual rationale, leading to even more persecution.

Gays Against Groomers is a far-right group that claims to be made up of cisgender gay, bisexual, and lesbian individuals who oppose transgender rights. They often label trans people “groomers” and “pedophiles,” a tactic also seen with Republicans like Greene, who also target LGB individuals.

Finke’s move to take down this wording is her most controversial one – she became the target of right-wing media, with Gays Against Groomers sending legions of people after her for supposedly trying to “make pedophilia a protected class.” This is in spite of a PolitiFact fact check that debunked their claim. 

The rightwing Daily Caller and Fox News also piled on Finke, making her a target for online harassment in the right-wing sphere.

LGBTQ Nation was able to confirm that Finke did, in fact, receive death threats, as seen through public documentation of such by civil rights attorney Alejandra Caraballo on X.

Minnesota conservatives frequently put Finke in the spotlight. When she talks positively about gender-affirming care, accounts big and small attack her. LGBTQ Nation has found multiple such accounts, including “@LeftistsofMN,” a popular right-wing account that tracks prominent left-wingers in the state, and “Action 4 Liberty,” a right-wing activist organization.

These attacks weren’t just coming from the right-wing outrage machine, however. They also came from inside the state House.

Finke cited social media attacks from Minnesota right-wing lawmakers who represent, she said, just a sliver of the type of vitriol that she receives from some of her colleagues. One, which Finke said was an attack on her, came from state Rep. Dawn Gillman (R), who said, “Period. Biological males need to stop colonizing women’s spaces, be it a locker room, fitting rooms, women’s/girls sports.”