Elisa Crespo, a trans candidate for New York City Council, has received an outpouring of support form the LGBT+ community after a “hatchet piece” on her sex work past.

Running for New York City Council’s District 15 in the Bronx, trans woman Crespo is hoping to fill the seat vacated by Ritchie Torres, who last month became the first openly gay Afro-Latino congressman in the US. If elected, Crespo would become New York’s the first openly trans city council member.

But on Sunday (29 November) a derogatory “hatchet piece” was published about Crespo by the New York Post on her candidacy and history as a sex worker.

Crespo has been open about her time as a sex worker, and how her experience shaped her politics today. She previously told Gay City News: “I had a really rough, challenging, testing adolescence, and sex working landed me in trouble with the law.

“That changed my way of thinking, my politics, and the course of my life in general… because I realised I had to do something and I changed my life for the better.”

But the New York Post treated Crespo’s past as a scandalous revelation, describing her as “an ex-prostitute who was busted in a police sting”.

The LGBT+ community in politics and beyond jumped to Crespo’s defence and slammed the tabloid publication’s “hatchet piece”.

Congressman-elect Torres wrote on Twitter: “Across the country, LGBTQ candidates have come under siege for being who we are. I speak from first-hand experience: the voters of the Bronx won’t be swayed by appeals to bigotry.

“Both the New York Post and the scoundrels behind the hatchet piece should be ashamed of themselves. Word of advice: transphobia is not only bad morals. It’s bad politics.”