First openly transgender U.S. lawmaker sentenced for child sex abuse
Transgender former New Hampshire state representative Stacy Marie Laughton sentenced for child molestation offenses. Collage: UOJ
A U.S. court has sentenced former New Hampshire state representative Stacy Marie Laughton to 33 years in prison for receiving explicit images of children aged 3 to 5 that were secretly taken at a Massachusetts daycare center, Fox News reports.
Laughton, 41, of Nashua, pleaded guilty to child sexual exploitation charges. According to the court, the former Democratic lawmaker received explicit photographs of daycare children from a former partner, Lindsey Groves. Groves, who worked at the Creative Minds preschool, was previously sentenced to 22 years in prison.
Investigators found that between May 2022 and June 2023, Groves secretly photographed prepubescent children in a private bathroom during routine diaper and pull-up changes prior to nap time and sent the images to Laughton via text messages. Law enforcement officials discovered more than 10,000 messages on the defendants’ phones discussing and sharing child exploitation material.
Laughton was the first openly transgender person elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives as a Democrat. Despite having changed legal gender markers, officials at the Hillsborough County jail confirmed that the convicted offender will serve the sentence in a male housing unit.
As the UOJ reported, a transgender member of the U.S. Congress recently announced being ordained in a Protestant church.
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