Stacie Laughton

Stacie Laughton is an American politician who was elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives in the 2012 elections. As a member of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, she would have represented the Nashua-area Ward 4 alongside David Cote and Mary Gorman. She is a selectman in Ward 4 in Nashua.

Laughton was the first openly transgender woman ever elected to a state legislature in the United States. Her only known predecessor, Althea Garrison, came out as transgender only after she had already been elected, and was defeated in all of her subsequent runs for office after coming out.

After the election, media outlets reported that in 2008 Laughton had 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". The conviction was under her male name, Barry Charles, Jr. Laughton did not disclose the conviction during the campaign, nor was she required to under the law. Under New Hampshire law, 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."