Adrian Tam, a 28-year-old gay Asian American son of immigrants, defeated a leader of the Hawaii chapter of the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group, to become the only openly LGBTQ person in Hawaii’s Legislature.
Tam, a first-time candidate, took 63 percent of the vote against Nicholas Ochs.
“It feels really good to know that someone who is openly LGBT can win,” Tam told NBC Asian America. “There was a time when people like me could not win. I’m glad that I can bring that representation to the capital.”
Tam described what was a nerve-wracking election season, from trying to connect with voters amid coronavirus, to narrowly taking down longtime incumbent Tom Brower in the August Democratic primary, to facing an overwhelming amount of hate from Ochs and his supporters in the general election.
“It’s almost to a harassment level,” Tam said, noting that Ochs’ supporters bombarded his campaign’s social media to the point where the messages from his own voters were drowned out.
Ochs told NBC News he also faced harassing messages from Tam’s supporters and that he was disappointed the two didn’t get a chance to debate. He said that he is not racist.
Ochs’ campaign page was removed by Facebook in September for posts that violated the platform’s terms of service and community standards, local station KITV reported. He has been criticized in the past for offensive posts toward Black, Jewish and LGBT communities. Facebook did not respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
Tam said part of his job now is to serve even those who directed hate toward him and his allies.
“I wanted our community to come together,” he said. “I wanted to let everyone know that I’m a public servant that will work with everyone. My office door will always be open to them and their families.”
Tam’s agenda includes recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, strengthening the nontourism economy and improving resources for the homeless. Hawaii has the third-highest rate of homelessness in the country, according to a 2019 study, and Tam says the problem is especially prevalent in his district.
“We needed new leadership,” Tam said. “It was time for change, and I wanted to step up to the plate.”
Annise Parker, president of the LGBTQ Victory Fund, a political action committee that supports LGBTQ people running for office, said that when there are no LGBTQ elected officials in a state, “it has consequences, both in policy and how young LGBTQ people view themselves.”
“Adrian will ensure LGBTQ people are considered and prioritized in the state capitol and will inspire more LGBTQ people to run and serve,” Parker said in a statement.
Tam reflected on the record number of LGBTQ and people of color elected to local and national government across the U.S.
“I’m glad that our Congress is slowly coming together and starting to look like the population of America,” he said.
Kimberly Jackson, an Episcopal church leader in Atlanta, made history last week when she was the first Black lesbian elected to Georgia’s state Senate. She was excited about winning — and doing so with 80 percent of the vote — as well as making history. Then her election win got even sweeter.
Shortly after Election Day, a constituent approached Jackson at the gym and informed her that part of her district intersects with one represented by Karla Drenner, Georgia’s first openly gay state representative, who has been in the state House of Representatives for nearly 20 years.
“People are excited about that,” Jackson told NBC News shortly after Election Day. “I’m also incredibly humbled and really grateful for the people of District 41 for trusting me to do this work.”
Jackson’s victory was one of many for queer people of color last week, and that her district overlaps with Drenner’s underscores the increasing LGBTQ representation being seen across the country.
Jackson was one of at least 40 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people of color who won elections in state legislatures last week, and one of at least 16 nonincumbents. Their wins will bring LGBTQ representation in state legislatures to more than 150, for now, with only Louisiana, Mississippi and Alaska having never elected an out state representative (though there are currently three uncalled Alaska races that could change that), according to the LGBTQ Victory Fund.
Jackson told NBC News that she expects to draw experience from the LGBTQ Caucus in the Georgia House of Representatives, and expects her election to have tangible change in the state Senate. She said that by just being elected, it could help reduce the number of anti-LGBTQ pieces of legislation that get introduced, since lawmakers will have to debate Jackson’s rights to her face.
“I’m a firm believer of everyone being represented at the table.”
SHEVRIN JONES
She’s also keenly aware that her state is about to become the center of the political universe for the next two months as one of Georgia’s U.S. Senate races is going to a runoff on Jan. 5, and the other could also be headed for a runoff. The outcome could determine which party controls the Senate. Georgia is on track to vote for a Democratic candidate for president for the first time since 1992, and that statewide support will influence the 2021 legislative session in Atlanta, according to Jackson.
“What it means on a state legislative level is that Republicans know that we’re coming, and they’re going to have to learn how to work with us and how to have conversations with us,” Jackson said. “I think that the General Assembly already has some really good bipartisan work that takes place, but they’ll have to get more used to talking to Democrats, having to build relationships with people who most often don’t look like them, or love like them.”
In neighboring Florida, Shevrin Jones, 37, joined Kimberly Jackson in making political history. Jones, who had been serving in the Florida House of Representatives since 2012, was elected to and seated in the state Senate last week, making him the first LGBTQ representative in Florida’s Senate.
After his victory, Shevrin told NBC News he and his partner had bought a French bulldog puppy to celebrate, and he said he plans to hit the ground running in the state Senate introducing bills to help small businesses in minority communities survive Covid-19; help modernize the state’s unemployment system so constituents get the benefits they need; and work on overhauling police to build on calls for change sparked by protests this summer across the country.
“I’m a firm believer of everyone being represented at the table, and it is not to say that the current LGBTQ allies can’t speak up for us, or speak for me, but it’s better to have someone from the community at the table,” Jones said. “I can tell you from experience what it means to be discriminated against. I can tell you from experience my story, which can help … move, whether it’s legislation, whether it’s to move the agenda or a particular item.”
Jones, who said his victory “feels amazing,” will be joined in the Florida state Legislature by Michelle Rayner, who made history on Election Day as the first Black LGBTQ woman elected to the state House.
In the northeast, Tiara Mack made history as the first Black LGBTQ member elected to the Rhode Island State Senate. Mack told NBC News that she would introduce herself to residents in her district as: “Tiara Mack, a queer Black, formerly low-income educator and activist.”
“All of those identities are political, whether or not we see them,” said Mack, who unseated an incumbent who represented the district for 15 years.
In Hawaii, Adrian Tam became the first openly gay Asian American representative in the state, overcoming alleged harassment in the process. Tam’s opponent in the race was Nicholas Ochs, a leader of the local chapter of the far-right group Proud Boys.
Cisgender people of color were not the only ones to make gains in state legislatures. In Kansas and Oklahoma, trans and nonbinary people of color made history by being elected to their state’s legislature.
Mauree Turner, who is Black and Muslim, won a seat in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, becoming the first nonbinary person elected to any state’s legislature.
Stephanie Byers, a member of the Native American Chickasaw Nation, won a seat in the Kansas House of Representatives, becoming the first transgender woman of color elected to any state legislature in the U.S.
“We never know until we try, and we can step up there and make a difference,” Byers told NBC News when asked if she was surprised by her victory.
Two of Election Day’s biggest history-makers were Ritchie Torresand Mondaire Jones, both New York Democrats who became the first openly gay Black Americans every elected to Congress.
Torres, the youngest member of the New York City Council, won a deeply blue district in the Bronx with over 88 percent of the vote, while Jones was elected in a district just north of New York City with 54 percent of the vote, with 72 percent of ballots counted.
“Tonight we made history,” Torres tweeted on election night, calling it “the honor of a lifetime to represent a borough filled with essential workers who risked their lives so that New York City could live” during the pandemic.
Jones told NBC News he’s excited to serve in Congress along with Torres.
“He’s a tremendous candidate and a good friend,” he said. “This is a chance for us to be the role model we looked for growing up — for queer youth and especially queer youth of color.”
While the two men will be the first LGBTQ Black members of Congress, they won’t be the first people of color to serve. They’ll be joining Reps. Mark Takano, D-Calif, an Asian American who in 2012 became the first person of color to serve in Congress, and Sharice Davids, D-Kan., who in 2018 became the first openly gay Native American member of Congress.
On the local level, Todd Gloria, who is half Native American and part Filipino, Puerto Rican and Dutch, became the first LGBTQ person elected mayor of San Diego. The mayor-elect, who is currently a member of the California state Assembly, will soon join Chicago’s Lori Lightfoot as the only LGBTQ people of color holding mayorships in major U.S. cities.
“It is an uphill battle for LGBTQ people of color to be in a position to run for high-level office, much less win, so Todd’s victory is a pivotal moment for San Diego and the country,” former Houston Mayor Annise Parker, who is currently president and CEO of the LGBTQ Victory Fund, said in a statement. “Todd shattered a rainbow ceiling and is now the second-highest ranking LGBTQ mayor in the country. His voice and his impact on critical issues — and especially civil rights — will extend far beyond the boundaries of his city and state.”
Queer or non-queer, if you value democracy, civil rights and health care, nothing’s as scary as the Supreme Court.
With the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett, there’s the reasonable concern that the court (with a 6-3 conservative, Republican majority) might rule in favor of Donald Trump’s false claims of voter fraud.
There’s the (not unreasonable) fear that millions of Americans will lose their health insurance if the court rules in favor of repealing the Affordable Care Act.
Then, there’s Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, a case that hasn’t gotten much attention in the midst of the election and the pandemic. But that case could have a profound, life-changing impact on the LGBTQ community and many other marginalized groups.
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Fulton v. City of Philadelphia on Nov. 4. As the Blade has reported, the issue of the case is whether Catholic Social Services (CSS), a taxpayer funded, religious-affiliated foster care agency, can reject same-sex couples who want to be foster parents (because of their sexual orientation).
Nothing stings more than rejection. Especially, if you’re being rejected by the church you love.
Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of DignityUSA, the organization of Catholics working for LGBTQ equality, remembers the moment when the phone rang.
She and her spouse, who live in Massachusetts, wanted to adopt a child. “We’re Catholic. So we started with Catholic Charities,” Duddy-Burke told me in a telephone interview.
The couple, who celebrated a civil union in Vermont in 2000 and were legally married in Massachusetts in 2004, wondered why they didn’t hear back from the agency. Finally, one day a Catholic Charities social worker called them. “She said she was calling from her own car during her lunch break,” Duddy-Burke said. “Because she didn’t want [the agency] to know she was talking to us.”
The agency worker told the couple that Catholic Charities wouldn’t place children with same-sex couples. “She said she disagreed with the policy. But that was the policy,” Duddy-Burke said.
Duddy-Burke’s story has a happy ending: She and her wife (going through a state agency) adopted two daughters. Their older daughter (born drug-addicted, and nine months old when they adopted her) has just started college. Their younger daughter, adopted when she was five, is now a junior in high school.
“Such a rejection was so alienating – dehumanizing,” Duddy-Burke said, “to be rejected – not for our experience or qualifications, but because of who we are!”
If the couple had been a part of an “institutional” church, they might have lost their connection with the church, Duddy-Burke said. But because “we are a part of a small, independent Catholic community that provided love and support,” she said, they maintained their faith.
But, a lot of people don’t have that kind of support, Duddy-Burke added.
The all-too-likely possibility that the Supreme Court will rule that a taxpayer-funded, religious-affiliated foster care agency can reject same-sex couples as foster parents (on the basis of sexual orientation) for religious reasons makes me question my faith in democracy.
Why should we be so concerned about Fulton v. City of Philadelphia? Because allowing agencies that receive taxpayer funding to discriminate against LGBTQ people or any other group for religious reasons violates the separation of church and state.
There are more than 400,000 children in the foster care system who are waiting adoption, according to the U.S. Department of Human Services. These kids, desperately needing parental love and support, are the innocent pawns of homophobia.
In the age of marriage equality, 11 states have banned same-sex adoptions. Yet, ironically, same-sex couples are seven times more likely than opposite-sex couples to raise an adopted or foster child, according to UCLA School of Law Williams Institute.
A majority of Americans (61 percent) support same-sex marriage, according to a 2019 Pew Research Center poll.
If the Supreme Court rules that CSS can forbid same-sex couples from adopting children because of its religious affiliation, the floodgates to discrimination of all types against many groups of people will be opened. Everyone from landlords to employers to hospitals could discriminate, based on their religious beliefs, against not only queers, but Muslims, Black people, atheists – anyone who doesn’t fit the so-called norm.
Let’s hope that justice will prevail – that the court will uphold the separation of church and state. Our life as a democracy depends on it.
The Oxford English Dictionary definition of the word “woman” has been updated to reflect LGBT+ relationships following complaints that it was sexist.
The world-famous dictionary previously described women as “a man’s wife, girlfriend or lover”. This has now been amended to acknowledge the fact that a woman can be “a person’s wife, girlfriend, or female lover”, rather than only a man’s.
Other terms have been identified as “derogatory”, “offensive” or “dated”, such as the words “b***h”, “bint” and “besom”, which are listed as synonyms for woman.
The changes came after a petition was launched earlier this year by campaigner Maria Beatrice Giovanardi to get rid of all phrases and definitions that discriminate against or patronise women.
t gained more than 34,000 signatures and included the leaders of Women’s Aid and the Women’s Equality Party among the signatories.
Speaking to PinkNews in March, Giovanardi said she had been “astonished” to realise that the Oxford Dictionary used derogatory synonyms and misogynistic examples that perpetuate negative female stereotypes.
“By contrast, for the word man, the examples and synonyms are exemplary, demonstrating intellect and social status,” she noted.
“I felt I needed to point out the obvious – that not describing men and women in an equally respectful way, disadvantages women because it perpetuates negative stereotypes that present women as lesser beings, which in turn influences the way women are talked about and treated.
“This is just one of many examples of everyday sexism and how mainstream culture frequently dehumanises women by portraying them as sex objects or subordinate to men.”
In a statement to The Telegraph, publisher Oxford University Press said the dictionary is “driven solely by evidence of how real people use English in their daily lives”.
It added: “We have expanded the dictionary coverage of ‘woman’ with more examples and idiomatic phrases which depict women in a positive and active manner.
“We have ensured that offensive synonyms or senses are clearly labelled as such and only included where we have evidence of real world usage.”
Joe Biden’s presidency comes with many firsts, and as he took to the stage on Saturday night he added a new one: the first president-elect to mention trans people in his victory speech.
Addressing a jubilant crowd in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, the new president-elect declared it was now America’s “time to heal” and vowed to unify the nation once again.
He began by thanking “the broadest and most diverse coalition in history” for backing his campaign, including a shoutout to the LGBT+ community.
“I am proud of the campaign we built and ran. I am proud of the coalition we put together, the broadest and most diverse coalition in history,” he said.
Amid a chorus of cheers, applause and pumping car horns, he continued: “I mean it. Especially for those moments when this campaign was at its lowest ebb — the African-American community stood up again for me.
“They always have my back, and I’ll have yours. I said from the outset I wanted a campaign that represented America, and I think we did that. Now that’s what I want the administration to look like.”
Biden’s victory speech was a reassuring return to the professional, presidential rhetoric eschewed by Donald Trump, and a sign of his intention to be president to “all people” – including marginalised groups.
His words carried echoes of Barack Obama’s 2008 speech, which was the first time a president-elect had ever mentioned the gay community in an inaugural address.
And as Biden promised to usher in a new era of cooperation, he acknowledged the painful truth that “too many dreams have been deferred for too long” – a reference to the poem “A Dream Deferred” by Langston Hughes, a gay Black man.
“We must make the promise of the country real for everybody — no matter their race, their ethnicity, their faith, their identity, or their disability,” he said.
“We stand again at an inflection point. We have the opportunity to defeat despair and to build a nation of prosperity and purpose. We can do it. I know we can.”
One hundred years after the horrific events of the Harvard Secret Court, the United States still lacks federal discrimination protections that would have prevented this tragedy.
On May 23, 1920, Abbott Lawrence Lowell, then president of Harvard University, convened a clandestine, five-person tribunal that became known as the Harvard Secret Court of 1920. The charge? Eight students, a recent graduate, and an assistant professor were all suspected to be gay. The court destroyed the lives of those it tried. One hundred years after the horrific events of the Harvard Secret Court, the United States still lacks federal discrimination protections that would have prevented this tragedy.
The story of the Harvard Secret Court starts with the tragic suicide of Cyril Wilcox, an undergraduate student at Harvard, who shortly before his death acknowledged his homosexuality to his brother, George. Steeped in grief and blaming Cyril’s homosexuality for his death, George used letters that had been written to Cyril by several of his companions at Harvard to convince Acting Dean Chester Noyes Greenough to investigate homosexuality at the school. Shortly after, the Secret Court was born.
“Have you ever participated in unnatural acts with a man,” asked the court. The students implicated in the affair were called in one by one and accused of participating in homosexual activities before being expelled. Among the victims was Windsor Hosmer, a graduate business student who had interrupted his undergraduate studies at Harvard to serve in the Ambulance Corps with the French Army in World War I; Ernest Roberts, a World War I veteran who hoped to be a doctor; and Eugene Cummings, a gifted dentistry student who took his own life shortly after being expelled.
Stories such as the one of the Harvard Secret Court might seem to belong in a dark history we left behind, but that could not be further from the truth. Earlier this summer, Union University in Tennessee rescinded a student’s admission to the school after administrators learned he was gay. Campus Pride has compiled a list of schools that openly discriminate against LGBTQ people. Some universities, like Liberty University in Virginia, even subject suspected LGBTQ students to the harmful practice of so-called “conversion therapy,” which seeks to change a person’s sexual orientation.
According to The Trevor Project’s 2020 National Survey of LGBTQ Youth Mental Health, LGBTQ young people face mental health disparities and significantly high rates of attempting suicide. Discrimination experienced at school contributes to these problems. The survey found that 61% percent of transgender and nonbinary youth report being prevented or discouraged from using a bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity at their school.
This must change. The Equality Act would prohibit discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity in a wide variety of areas including public accommodations and facilities, education, federal funding, employment, housing, credit, and the jury system. After the Act passed the House of Representatives in 2019, President Trump announced that he would not support the bill. It is unconscionable that such protections are still not in place today. The Equality Act must be passed now.
Although the White House states that it opposes LGBTQ discrimination and that it only refuses to sign the Equality Act because it infringes on “parental and conscience rights,” its policies tell a different story. Since he came into power, President Trump has rescinded Department of Education guidance encouraging LGBTQ students to use the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity, has banned transgender people from serving in the military and has even defended people who fired their employees simply for being gay at the Supreme Court. The Trump administration’s empty declaration of standing against LGTBQ discrimination while actively engaging in such discrimination is a perfect example of the Orwellian ways that LGBTQ bigotry hides and thrives today.
We must meet the challenge that history is presenting us and elect a president that will sign the Equality Act, which Joe Biden has promised to do. In the centennial of the Harvard Secret Court of 1920, let us remember the court’s victims, their unjustified pain and suffering, and honor them by casting our votes for leaders who will finally implement policies putting an era of such damaging discrimination behind us.
Diego Garcia Blum is student body president at Harvard Kennedy School, the Policy Chair for Secret Court 100, and a member of the National Board of Governors of the Human Rights Campaign.
Pope Francis’ endorsement of same-sex civil unions was taken out of context, Vatican officials have claimed as they sought to clarify that the church does not support LGBT+ rights.
The Pope’s comments featured in the documentary Francescodid not signal a change in church doctrine, neither did they support a wider endorsement of marriage equality, according to guidance issued to apologetic ambassadors by the Vatican secretariat of state.
Vatican nuncio to Mexico, Franco Coppola, posted on Facebook Friday (October 31) unsigned guidance which claims that the pontiff’s remarks were “edited” and lacked “proper contextualisation”.
In the guidance, the Vatican says that the Pope was referring to his position in 2010 when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires.
They said that the quote itself was not recent and was taken from a May 2019 interview that was never broadcast. The church claimed two of Francis’ answers were spliced together in Francesco.
More than a year ago, during an interview, Pope Francis answered two different questions at two different times that, in the aforementioned documentary, were edited and published as a single answer without proper contextualisation, which has led to confusion,” the guidance said.
Pope Francis praised for endorsing same-sex civil unions. Not quite, the Vatican clarifies.
Francesco made global headlines when it released an interview with the Pope in which he endorsed same-sex civil unions. The remarks were hailed by LGBT+ advocates but startled many religious leaders, prompting furious attempts to undermine them.
“Homosexual people have the right to be in a family,” Pope Francis said in the interview. “They are children of God and have a right to a family.
“Nobody should be thrown out or be made miserable over it.”
According to the Vatican guidance, Francis was referring to parents with queer children and the need not to kick them out or discriminate against them.
The second part of his remarks – “What we have to create is a civil union law, that way they are legally covered, I stood up for that” – was again skewed, the guidance claimed.
It was him reiterating his position from nine years ago, as archbishop of Buenos Aires, the Vatican claimed.
“It is clear that Pope Francis was referring to certain state provisions and certainly not the doctrine of the church, which he has reaffirmed numerous times over the years,” the guidance said.
It had already emerged that the Pope’s comments were cherry-picked from a 2019 interview with Mexican television station Televisa.
Four out candidates in Puerto Rico won their races on Tuesday.
Ana Irma Rivera Lassen, a lesbian woman of African descent, was elected to the Puerto Rico Senate. Rivera won her race less than five months after Antulio “Kobbo” Santarrosa, host of “La Comay,” a Puerto Rican gossip show hosted by a life-sized puppet with the same name, mocked her.
Jorge Báez Pagán, a member of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party, won his race for an at-large seat in the Puerto Rico House of Representatives. He defeated María Milagros “Tata” Charbonier, an anti-LGBTQ representative who has been indicted on federal corruption charges, in his August primary.
Voters in Isabela, a municipality on Puerto Rico’s northwest coast, elected Miguel “Ricky” Méndez, a gay man who is a member of the Popular Democratic Party, which supports the island’s status as a U.S. commonwealth, as the next mayor. Edgardo Cruz Vélez, a retired soldier who is also openly gay, won his write-in campaign for mayor of Guánica, a municipality on Puerto Rico’s southwest coast.
Tuesday’s election took place against the backdrop of continued violence and discrimination against LGBTQ Puerto Ricans.
Six transgender people have been murdered on the island since the beginning of the year.
Puerto Rico’s hate crimes law includes both sexual orientation and gender identity, but local prosecutors rarely apply it. Activists have sharply criticized outgoing Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced and other New Progressive Party lawmakers over their response to the murders, anti-LGBTQ hate crimes and general violence towards LGBTQ Puerto Ricans.
The Puerto Rican government last month announced the island’s Medicaid program now covers transition-related health care.
Puerto Rican voters on Tuesday also narrowly approved a non-binding statehood referendum.
The US election result remains unconfirmed but there’s still a lot to celebrate as a new rainbow wave of LGBT+ victories emerges across the country.
There were nearly 600 out candidates on the ballot this year, a record number that reflects stronger support for queer people among ordinary Americans.×
Dozens have already won their races, and while Trump has made more gains in the US election than anyone predicted, the historic wins keep on coming. Here are some of the big ones.
Mauree Turner has become the very first non-binary state lawmaker in US history. The Democratic community organiser and queer Muslim won election to district 88 in Oklahoma City, winning out over Republican Kelly Barlean with a projected 71 per cent of the vote.
Ahead of the US election, they told HuffPost: “I’m Black, Muslim, femme, queer, born and raised in Oklahoma – politics was the last thing in my crosshairs.
“Oklahomans have representation that doesn’t have our shared lived experience – that hasn’t been in a family that had to live off SNAP benefits, [or] a single-parent household because one parent was incarcerated. That was my upbringing, and it’s not a unique one.”
Michele Rayner-Goolsby, Florida’s House of Representatives.
Michele Rayner-Goolsby is the first Black queer woman to win a seat in the Florida legislature. She will represent District 70 in the State House after winning 30 per cent of the vote in a crowded race against three opponents.
It’s not the first glass ceiling she’s shattered: Rayner-Goolsby is also a civil rights attorney, social justice advocate and lead counsel of Civil Liberty Law, her own law firm.
“It really has been a people powered campaign” she told the Tampa Bay Times, saying that she sees her victory as “pushing back on patriarchy.”
“We ran with integrity. We ran with transparency and we ran with accountability.”
Shevrin Jones, Florida State Senate.
Joining Rayner in the Sunshine state is Shevrin Jones, Florida’s first out LGBT+ state senator. He’ll be one of the only out Black men serving in US state senates as he represents District 35.
Jones came out as gay in 2018, explaining he had decided to start living his truth “just a little bit more” after the death of his older brother. He has since become a powerful voice for LGBT+ rights in Florida.
“I’m humbled to have earned the trust of the people of SD 35,” he tweeted after the result was announced. “I am looking forward to serving you in the Florida Senate. Thank YOU! #WEthePEOPLE.”
Raised in a rural town in South Carolina, Jackson moved to Georgia a decade ago and has become a powerful advocate for public education, criminal justice reform, ending the death penalty, and of course, LGBT+ equality.
“I felt really early that I wanted to make a difference in the world,” she told The Advocate in a 2020 Champions of Pride profile.
Jabari Brisport, New York State Senate.
Jabari Brisport, hailed as “the next AOC”, has become the first ever Black LGBT+ person elected to the New York state legislature.
A gay, Democratic socialist, public school teacher and third-generation Caribbean-American, Jabari Brisport has become the New York state senator representing Brooklyn’s 25th District.
Mayor Annise Parker, the president and CEO of the LGBTQ Victory Fund, said Brisport’s experiences as a Black queer person “will provide an essential perspective that has never been represented in the New York state legislature and will pave the way for a government that is more representative of the people it serves.
“Jabari shattered a rainbow ceiling in New York and his victory will encourage more people like him to step up and run.”
Charmaine McGuffey, Hamilton Country Sheriff.
Charmaine McGuffey made headlines when she announced that she was suing former Democratic sheriff Jim Neil, claiming he fired her from her position as major of the jail and court services because she is a woman and a lesbian.
She went on to run in the Democratic primary, putting her experiences with discrimination front and centre in her campaign. She won by a landslide and kicked Neil out of the race in the process.
She’s continued her victory streak by beating her Republican rival Bruce Hoffbauer, winning 52 per cent of the vote and becoming the first woman and first openly LGBT+ person to hold the position of Sheriff in Hamilton County.
Together with Ritchie Torres (see below), Mondaire Jones has become one of the first Black and Latino LGBT+ members of Congress.
Jones is a gay attorney who served in the US Department of Justice under Barack Obama. He recently worked for the Westchester County Law Department and also provided pro bono legal aid through The Legal Aid Society.
He’s claimed victory in New York’s 17th congressional district over Republican Maureen McArdle Schulman.
Ritchie Torres, New York’s 15th Congressional District.
Afro-Latino New York City councilman Ritchie Torres bested Republican candidate Orlando Molina in New York’s safely-Democratic 15th congressional district.
As the race was called, Torres said: “Tonight, a new era begins for the South Bronx. It is the honour of a lifetime to represent a borough filled with essential workers who risked their lives so that New York City could live.
“My pledge to the district is simple: I will fight for you. The Bronx is my home, it is what made me who I am, and it is what I will fight for in Congress. I thank the voters of the South Bronx from the bottom of my heart for the trust they put in me to represent them.”
Brianna Titone, Colorado’s 27th House District.
Colorado transgender lawmaker Brianna Titone won re-election with an increased majority, despite Republicans launching vile transphobic ads in a bid to unseat her.
Republican state representative Stephen Humphrey even took the time torecord a robocall that disparages and misgenders her, declaring she is “just too dangerous for Colorado families.” Despite his best efforts, she was re-elected with an increased majority of 2,280 over GOP opponent Vicki Pyne.
“The voters have spoken and selected me to continue to serve the people of House District 27. Thank you!” Titone said.
“It has been my honour to serve you the last 2 years and it is my honour again to serve for you the next two years. I will always do my best to represent the district to the best of my ability, to listen to views that differ from my own, and apply science and logic to the decisions that we face in governing the great state of Colorado.”
Sarah McBride, Delaware State Senate.
In another history-making victory for the US election, Human Rights Campaign activist and transgender rights champion Sarah McBride has become the first trans woman ever elected to a state senate.
She’s previously played a pivotal role in the fight for LGBT+ discrimination protections in Delaware, and has lobbied for the Equality Act to extend protections nationwide.
Annise Parker of LGBTQ Victory Fund celebrated McBride’s success in shattering the “lavender ceiling”, saying: “Sarah’s overwhelming victory is a powerful testament to the growing influence of transgender leaders in our politics and gives hope to countless trans people looking toward a brighter future.”
In a later interview, he added: “I’m just shocked at the amount of people who were ready to see something different… They truly felt that I will make some type of difference and I’m just so thankful that our voters really truly feel that way.”
Stephanie Byers, Kansas House of Representatives.
Stephanie Byers, a transgender teacher and member of the Native American Chickasaw Nation, is one of the few transgender people of colour to be elected to office anywhere in the United States. She is the first transgender representative in the Kansas state legislature, helping to bolster further representation.
Annise Parker of LGBTQ Victory Fund said Byers’ win “will reverberate well beyond the borders of the state”.
“Her victory will inspire more trans people to run for office because they see it is possible and understand these candidates are transforming how America perceives them,” Parker said.
“While cynical politicians attempted to weaponise trans issues for political gain this cycle, Stephanie’s victory is a powerful reminder that most voters reject the politics of bigotry and will elect trans people who have a positive vision for their communities.”
The number of LGBT+ people who voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 US presidential election more than double compared to four years ago,exit polls suggest.
With a bitter and strained electoral battle unfolding and an anxious nation awaiting a winner, a patchwork of exit polls have begun to show the numbers that will shape debate for months to come – who voted for who.×
And according to exit polls conducted by Edison Research for the National Election Pool, the sturdy trend that LGBT+ people vote Democratic has remained, but more voted for Trump this time around than in 2016.
Come 2020, and that figure has doubled to 28 per cent who voted for the Trump-Pence ticket – even despite the absolute onslaught of anti-queer attacks by the administration.
Around 61 per cent of LGBT+ voters went for Biden at the ballots. The study found that of the 15,590 voters interviewed, around seven per cent were LGBT+.
As much as Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has netted an, albeit, slim majority of the queer male vote, securing 51 per cent, it signalled to pollsters how the president’s brand of bullish showmanship has roiled the political landscape.
Indeed, the LGBT+ voting bloc has long been reliably Democratic. The poll conducted by queer dating app Hornet found that, overall among its users, around 66 per cent prefer Biden while 34 per cent support Trump.
But for queer Americans, pollsters said, the statistics were far tighter together. Just less than half of queer men said they do not support Trump, and a slither of just 11 per cent said they generally disagree with his stances.
Trump and his campaign team increasingly looked towards LGBT+ people as a way to buttress support amid the president’s cratering polls.
Among some of the Republican’s core voting blocs, such as white evangelicals, many do at least generally support LGBT+ rights, according to a 2019 survey.
But the president’s track record has seen him harshly erode many pre-existing LGBT+ rights. Trans rights, in particular, have been taken to with a buzz saw by the Trump administration, across countless federal departments and programs – defence, housing, health and education.