A small town in Bangladesh has elected the country’s first transgender mayor after the 45-year-old independent candidate beat her ruling party rival in a landslide, officials said Monday. The South Asian nation is home to an estimated 1.5 million transgender people, who face rampant discrimination and violence and are often forced to live by begging or working in the sex trade. But Nazrul Islam Ritu said her victory showed growing acceptance of the “Hijra” community, an umbrella term for those born male but do not refer to themselves as either a man or woman.