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Newly elected nonbinary politician Bentley Hudgins announces ‘Woke 3.0 has commenced’
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A right wing poster wrote, "You now have your 1st non-binary trans, Japanese elected official!” which.... is just a fact.
Quispe López is the lifestyle and health editor for Them.us and an LGBTQ+ issues journalist whose work has appeared in NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune and Business Insider. As a transmasculine Quechua Qariwarmi writer, their work focuses on transgender health and wellness.
This story originally appeared on Them.When right-wing media goes low, trans people go funnier!
Nonbinary Georgia state rep. Bentley Hudgins made history after winning an assembly seat — and conservatives are (unsurprisingly) losing it.
On November 5, End Wokeness, a right wing X account, made a post lamenting their victory as Georgia’s first nonbinary and transgender state representative. Attempting to somehow make a joke by just stating a fact, the End Wokeness account posted a video of Hudgins talking about their historic win.
“Good news, Georgia!” End Wokeness wrote. “You now have your 1st non-binary trans, Japanese elected official!”
Hudgins replied, “Thank you for the shout out! Woke 3.0 has now commenced. Cope.” They added a yellow heart emoji to the post.
“Yes, double down on woke,” End Wokeness wrote in between hits of copium. “It definitely will NOT backfire for future elections.”
Hudgins hasn’t been the only one to reference the viral Woke Eras meme and declare that Tuesday night’s Blue Wave midterm election ushered us into a new epoch. During a livestream on election night, streamer and right-wing target Hasan Piker joked that we’re skipping “Woke 2.0” and moving on to “Woke 3.0.”
While the “woke eras” meme has been a popular meme online in 2026, the meme really took off when Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez repeated an online meme, boosted by New York City Councilmember Chi Ossé declaring that “Woke 1 was crazy.”
Hudgins is the first out nonbinary state lawmaker in Georgia, as well as the first person of Japanese descent in Georgia’s state legislature. They campaigned on affordable housing, transit, wages and investing in neglected neighborhoods, per The Advocate.
Hudgins also told The Advocate in May that most voters care more about politicians working for the average person than they do about identity.
“I think people are less concerned about identities or are more concerned about, will you show up and actually do the work or not?” they said.
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