November is when we observe Transgender Awareness Week. But Election Day also brought a huge week for LGBTQ candidates.
by Mauve Maude
November 19, 2020
While many might have thought the Presidential election was the only thing happening (not unusual), this November down-ballot races made a substantial bit of history: LGBTQ history.
As of the 2020 election, eleven openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual members will sit in the United States Congress, nine incumbents and two new victors, who happen to be the first openly gay Black men, one also the first openly gay Latino man, elected to Congress.
Some previous history
Some of these sitting Congress members also blazed some trails themselves, as well as others before them. The first openly gay person ever elected to Congress was Gerry Studds, a Massachusetts Democrat who was re-elected in 1984, after coming out while serving in the House of Representatives. Previously, two Republican representatives who were outed during their terms, in 1980, did not win re-election. The first openly gay Republican to reach this milestone was Steve Gunderson of Wisconsin, re-elected after being outed on the House floor in 1994. In 1996 Republican Representative Jim Kolbe of Arizona won re-election after coming out while in office.
Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, openly lesbian, was elected in 2012, the first open LGBTQ person ever elected to the Senate. Previously, she was the first open lesbian to sit in the House, and the first open LGBTQ non-incumbent elected to Congress ever, in 1998. Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, openly bisexual, was elected in 2018, after becoming the first openly bisexual U.S. representative in 2012.
Barney Frank of Massachusetts was the first member of the House in a same-sex marriage in 2012. That same year, Wisconsin’s Mark Pocan, who replaced Tammy Baldwin’s House seat, was the first Congressman elected while in a same-sex marriage (and was the first LGBTQ Congress member to replace another LGBTQ Congress member). Jared Polis of Colorado was the first same-sex parent in Congress in 2011, and in 2018, he became the first openly gay person elected governor of a U.S. state. In 2012 Angie Craig of Minnesota was the first LGBTQ parent elected to Congress (then Rep. Polis being an incumbent).
Mark Takano of California, also elected in 2012, was the first openly gay person of color elected to Congress, and the first openly gay Asian-American. Representative Sharice Davids, a Kansas Democrat and Native American–who was born the same year the first gay Congressmen were outed–was elected in 2018 as the first openly lesbian woman of color to sit in Congress.
State election wins
Most of the LGBTQ wins in the U.S. Congress so far have been Democrats, but state legislatures made progress in both red and blue states, electing openly LGBTQ candidates in 2020. New York elected its first LGBTQ legislator of color, Georgia and Florida both elected their first LGBTQ state senators, Tennessee elected its first two LGBTQ legislators (one Republican), and Oklahoma elected Mauree Turner, a Democratic state representative who’s Black, Muslim, and non-binary. Taylor Small of Vermont and Stephanie Byers of Kansas became the first openly transgender people to win state House seats in their states, after Danica Roem of Virginia became the first openly transgender person seated to a state legislature in 2017. Stacie Laughton of New Hampshire, openly transgender, was elected to her state House in 2012, but resigned before taking office.
And finally, in Delaware, Sarah McBride became the first openly transgender person to win a state Senate seat, with more than 70% of the vote. Her Senate win makes her the highest ranking transgender government official in the country.
So as of the 2020 election, only three states in the union haven’t elected LGBTQ legislators. Clearly the country is making important historical gains in terms of demographic representation for LGBTQ citizens. The question this November is: when will the United States see its first transgender or non-binary Congressperson? It may be one of these star names, or one we haven’t heard yet. Next elections: 2022.
(Historical dates cited above were retrieved from Wikipedia, then verified by cited and secondary sources.)