Phillipe M. Cunningham is a former

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counc ...

member for

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

Ward 4 and was the first

transgender man A trans man or transgender man is a man who was assigned female at birth. Trans men have a male gender identity, and many trans men undergo medical and social transition to alter their appearance in a way that aligns with their gender identit ...

of color to be elected to public office in the United States. Cunningham won the council position in the 2017 Minneapolis City Council election and lost it in the 2021 election.

Early life and education

Cunningham was born in

Streator, Illinois Streator is a city in LaSalle County, Illinois, LaSalle and Livingston County, Illinois, Livingston counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. The city is situated on the Vermilion River (Illinois River tributary), Vermilion River approximately so ...

, where he lived until he was 18. His father worked as a

unionized A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

tractor mechanic/builder for more than forty years, while his mother was a dry cleaner employee; he is their only child. He graduated from

DePaul University DePaul University is a private university, private Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded by the Congregation of the Mission, Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from ...

with a Bachelor of Arts degree in

Chinese studies Sinology, also referred to as China studies, is a subfield of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on China. It is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of the Chinese civilization p ...

. He transitioned during his junior year at DePaul, inspired by the life and work of

Lou Sullivan Louis Graydon Sullivan (June 16, 1951 – March 2, 1991) was an American author and activist known for his work on behalf of trans men. He was perhaps the first transgender man to publicly identify as gay,Highleyman, Liz"Who was Lou Sullivan?" ...

Career

In his early career, Cunningham worked as a special education teacher in

Chicago Public Schools Chicago Public Schools (CPS), officially classified as City of Chicago School District #299 for funding and districting reasons, in Chicago, Illinois, is the List of the largest school districts in the United States by enrollment, fourth-large ...

on the

South Side of Chicago The South Side is one of the three major sections of the city of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Geographically, it is the largest of the sections of the city, with the other two being the North and West Sides. It radiates and lies south o ...

. Prior to his election to public office, Cunningham served on the City of Minneapolis's Youth Violence Prevention Executive Committee and as a senior policy aide for former Minneapolis Mayor

Betsy Hodges Elizabeth A. Hodges (born September 7, 1969) is an American politician who served as the 47th Mayor of Minneapolis from 2014 to 2018. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), she represented Ward 13 on the Minneapolis C ...

. On November 7, 2017, Cunningham was elected as the

member for

Ward 4, becoming the first transgender man of color to be elected to public office in the United States. Cunningham won over 20-year incumbent Barb Johnson by 175 votes. He was defeated on November 2, 2021, in the 2021 Minneapolis City Council election by LaTrisha Vetaw by a 61% to 30% vote. Ward 4 is the northwestern most ward in Minneapolis, and people of color and indigenous residents comprise 57 percent of the population. Cunningham is currently the U.S. Lead of Global Leadership Programs at the

Obama Foundation The Barack Obama Foundation is a Chicago-based nonprofit organization founded in 2014. It oversees the creation of the Barack Obama Presidential Center, runs the My Brother's Keeper Alliance (a program Barack Obama began while he was president) ...

Political views

Cunningham is a progressive

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (Cyprus) (DCY) **Democratic Part ...

Public safety

Cunningham advocates for the public health approach to public safety. After the

murder of George Floyd On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black American man, was murdered in Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old White police officer. Floyd had been arrested after a store clerk reported that he made a purchase using a c ...

, he joined a group of nine city council members who vowed to end the Minneapolis Police Department and create a new model for safety. Through the Safety for All Budget Plan, he secured permanent funding for violence prevention strategies like Next Step hospital-based bedside violence intervention. The Safety for All Budget Plan also institutionalized a new national model of a first-time gun offender diversion program, as well as launched the City of Minneapolis Behavioral Crisis Intervention Teams, unarmed social workers to respond to appropriate mental health crisis calls. In 2021, Cunningham and colleagues allocated over $2M granted to Minneapolis from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 toward combatting human trafficking and sexual exploitation, adding after school programs and youth outreach, and

group violence intervention The National Network for Safe Communities (NNSC) is a research center at City University of New York John Jay College of Criminal Justice. The NNSC works with communities to reduce violence, minimize arrest and incarceration, and increase trust be ...

programming for youth. Cunningham was a panelist on President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

's 2020 Town Hall on Racial Justice and Policing on June 3, 2020 where he spoke about the public health approach to public safety and gave an update on Minneapolis in the immediate aftermath of George Floyd's murder by Minneapolis Police Department officers.

Community development

Cunningham led the planning process for the projected $350 million dollar Upper Harbor Terminal redevelopment project which was approved. He also collaborated with Mayor Jacob Frey and state legislators to bring $27.5 million in state bonding investment for infrastructure redevelopment and development of a community performing arts center and amphitheater at the Upper Harbor Terminal site.

Housing

Cunningham led the creation, passage, and implementation of the Tenant Relocation Assistance ordinance, which requires landlords to provide 3 months rent to their tenants, if they lose their housing due to landlord negligence. In November 2018, Cunningham drew attention for a post on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

for characterizing the concerns of opponents of the "Minneapolis 2040" plan as merely seeking to protect their "

bungalow A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is typically single or one and a half storey, if a smaller upper storey exists it is frequently set in the roof and Roof window, windows that come out from the roof, and may be surrounded by wide ve ...

neighborhoods".

Personal life

Cunningham is Black, queer, and transgender. On July 10, 2015, soon after same-sex marriage was

legalized Legalization is the process of removing a legal prohibition against something which is currently not legal. Legalization is a process often applied to what are regarded, by those working towards legalization, as victimless crimes, of which one ...

nationwide, Cunningham married Lane Cunningham, a software architect and small business owner. They met at Creating Change, an annual national conference for LGBTQ+ activists held by the

National LGBTQ Task Force The National LGBTQ Task Force (formerly National Gay Task Force; National Gay and Lesbian Task Force) is an American social justice advocacy non-profit organizing the grassroots power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBT ...

. They are passionate about rescuing hard to rehabilitate animals. Cunningham has been a vegan since 2016.

References

External links

Phillipe Cunningham, City Council Ward 4
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Cunningham on Twitter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cunningham, Philippe 1987 births Living people African-American city council members in Minnesota DePaul University alumni American LGBTQ city council members African-American LGBTQ people LGBTQ people from Illinois LGBTQ people from Minnesota Mills College alumni Minneapolis City Council members American queer men American transgender men Transgender male politicians 21st-century Minnesota politicians 21st-century African-American politicians 21st-century American LGBTQ people American transgender politicians