Stacie-Marie Laughton

Stacie-Marie Laughton (born ) is an American politician who served in the New Hampshire House of Representatives from 2020 to 2022, representing District 31 in Hillsborough County. A member of the Democratic Party, she had previously been elected to the chamber in the 2012 elections to represent Ward 4 in Nashua, but resigned her position as Representative-elect due to the surfacing of a past criminal conviction. She was also a selectwoman in the ward. 2012 election victory and resignation Laughton was the first openly transgender elected official in New Hampshire and the first openly transgender person elected to a state legislature anywhere in the United States. After her election, media outlets reported that Laughton had in 2008 been sentenced to 7 1/2 to 15 years in prison for conspiracy to commit credit card fraud and 3 1/2 to seven years for falsifying physical evidence. The sentences ran concurrently and were later reduced to one year in the Belknap County Department of Corrections. She served four months before being released under the condition of 10 years of "good behavior." Laughton did not disclose the conviction during her campaign, nor was she legally required to under the law. In New Hampshire, convicted felons are ineligible to hold public office until their "final discharge" from prison. Republicans claimed that the good behavior condition meant that Laughton had not received a "final release"; however, prison officials consider the "final discharge" to be when the inmate exits incarceration. On November 27, 2012, Laughton issued a statement: "After a lot of thought and after talking with the state party chair and my Democratic caucus director, I’ve decided to resign my position of state representative-elect."