Geo Soctomah Neptune won election to the school board in Indian Township this week, becoming the first openly transgender person elected to office in Maine.
Neptune, 32, is a member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe, a master basketmaker, a drag performer and an activist and educator involved in Indigenous language preservation, teaching Passamaquoddy in a language immersion program.
They won a three-person race for school board on Wednesday.
“To my knowledge,” Neptune wrote on Facebook, “I am […] the first Two-Spirit person to run for any kind of office in our community. I mention this because it is a big part of who I am; being transgender and non-binary is part of who I am, and part of who you would be electing, should you select my name.”
Neptune identifies as Two-Spirit, a traditional non-binary gender role found in many Indigenous cultures that may fulfill a ceremonial and social role.
They graduated from Gould Academy in Bethel and earned a theater degree from Dartmouth College. They returned to the Indian Township reservation to focus on basket making techniques they were taught by their grandmother, Molly Neptune Parker, a Passamaquoddy elder and master basket weaver.
Neptune is an activist with the Idle No More movement, which advocates for First Nations and Native American sovereignty and cultural preservation.
They have talked about detrimental effects imposed upon Indigenous people through settler-colonial norms of gender and patriarchy.
“A big part of dismantling tribal governments and working to colonize us as a people was specifically by flipping the switch from matriarchal to patriarchal system,” Neptune said in an interview with Them in 2018. “We went from a place where women were in charge to a place where women and feminine people and Two Spirits were disrespected because Native identity was almost a direct antithesis to patriarchy.”
Neptune said the preservation of the Passamaquoddy language and culture will be their top concern as the newest member of the Indian Township School Board.
“I feel confident saying that I am a person who makes their opinions known, and is not afraid to speak out against injustice when I see it,” they said. “I care for our culture very deeply, and see the preservation of our language and other traditions for future generations as being my first priority. If working with the other members of the School Board, these would be my focuses when making decisions. Confidence in one’s cultural identity translates to confidence in life.”
Photo: Geo Soctomah Neptune via Facebook
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