7 openly gay lears have served as heads of state. Latvian print Edgars Rkēvičs is the latt

Contents:

• 118TH CONGRS BREAKS RERD FOR LBIAN, GAY AND BISEXUAL REPRENTATN
• RERD 13 CONGRS MEMBERS INTIFY AS GAY, LBIAN OR BISEXUAL
• RCHIE TORR BE FIRST GAY AO LATO ELECTED TO CONGRS
• HOW CONGRSMAN GERRY STUDDS MA HISTORY BY COMG OUT AS GAY
• REP. MONDAIRE JON, ONE OF THE FIRST BLACK OPENLY GAY MEMBERS OF CONGRS, HAS BEE THE ROLE MOL HE’D NEVER HAD
• OPENLY GAY, AND OPENLY WELED CONGRS
• HOE DEMS PICK OPENLY GAY LAWMAKER TO LEAD MPAIGN ARM
• 'THIS HAS BEEN A LONG TIME COMG.' TWO NEW YORK CANDIDAT NOW POISED TO BEE FIRST OPENLY GAY BLACK, AO-LATO MEN CONGRS
• NEW HAMPSHIRE ULD ELECT S FIRST OPENLY GAY NGRSMAN
• TWO NEW YORK PROGRSIV HAVE BEE THE FIRST OPENLY GAY BLACK PEOPLE ELECTED TO CONGRS.
• NEW YORK DEMOCRAT RCHIE TORR ELECTED AS THE FIRST OPENLY GAY BLACK MEMBER OF CONGRS
• TORR AND JON W AND WILL BEE 1ST GAY BLACK MEMBERS OF CONGRS
• LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE

118TH CONGRS BREAKS RERD FOR LBIAN, GAY AND BISEXUAL REPRENTATN

The two new LGBTQ members of the Hoe will be the first openly gay Ain Amerin and Ao-Lato Congrs members: Mondaire Jon (D-N. By sexual orientatn, 64 intify as gay, 56 as lbian, 14 as bisexual, 11 as queer, and four as pansexual. Openly gay Tony Labranche, who at 18 won a seat the New Hampshire Hoe, will be among the youngt elected officials the number of out LGBTQ state legislators creased om 161 2020 to 175 who will be office 2021, an almost 9 percent crease, raisg the LGBTQ proportn of state legislators om 2.

I., and the first openly gay mayor of a state pal -- has reprented Rho Island's First Congrsnal District sce 2011. She mak history as Kansas's first LGBTQ member of Congrs and the first gay Native Amerin woman elected to Congrs.

RERD 13 CONGRS MEMBERS INTIFY AS GAY, LBIAN OR BISEXUAL

Gay ngrsman Sean Patrick Maloney won reelectn 2018 to ntue reprentg New York's 18th District.

Mark Pon is a gay polician and former small-bs owner who first took office the U. Thirteen votg members of the 118th Congrs intify as lbian, gay or bisexual – the hight number of openly LGB members history. Two senators and 11 members of the Hoe of Reprentativ intify as lbian, gay or bisexual, acrdg to a Pew Rearch Center analysis of lawmakers’ official bgraphi, mpaign webs and news reports.

In the 112th Congrs of 2011-13, jt four members – all reprentativ – intified as gay or lbian (and none as bisexual), acrdg to data om the Victory Fund, a polil actn mtee that works to elect LGBTQ policians. Data on the share of Amerins who are gay, lbian or bisexual om Gallup. In the Hoe, all but one of the 11 openly gay or lbian reprentativ are Democrats.

RCHIE TORR BE FIRST GAY AO LATO ELECTED TO CONGRS

The exceptn is Republin Gee Santos of New York, who the 2022 midterm cycle beme the first openly gay, non-cumbent Republin to w a ngrsnal electn. Seven of the 11 openly gay or lbian reprentativ the Hoe are returng members of Congrs. The four newly elected members clu Santos; Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the first openly gay immigrant elected to Congrs; Democrat Eric Sorensen, the first out gay ngrsperson to reprent Illois; and Democrat Bec Balt, the first woman and first openly LGB person to reprent Vermont.

Eight of the 11 Hoe members who intify as gay or lbian are gay men and three are lbians. Congrs set a historil mark wh a rerd 13 members who intify as gay, lbian or bisexual. Barney Frank, D-Mass., beme the first openly gay lawmaker Congrs when he me out on Memorial Day 1987.

HOW CONGRSMAN GERRY STUDDS MA HISTORY BY COMG OUT AS GAY

He is the first openly gay Republin to w a ngrsnal electn not as the cumbent. The rerd number of openly gay, lbian or bisexual Congrs members reprents 2% of all of Congrs. 5% of the adult populatn intifi as gay, lbian or bisexual, acrdg to a 2021 Gallup poll.

REP. MONDAIRE JON, ONE OF THE FIRST BLACK OPENLY GAY MEMBERS OF CONGRS, HAS BEE THE ROLE MOL HE’D NEVER HAD

Slowly, however, tim (and laws) have changed, and many brave Congrs members proudly stand support of gay rights. Prr to beg elected to Congrs Cicille was known for beg the first openly gay mayor of a US state pal (Province, Rho Island).

Acrdg to The Huffgton Post, this Colorado reprentative has the distctn of beg the first openly gay parent Congrs.

OPENLY GAY, AND OPENLY WELED CONGRS

Polis actively supports civil rights, tn, as well as gay and lbian issu. This California reprentative has the distctn of beg the first openly gay Asian Congrs member.

” After divorcg his wife Hson beme a gay activist and passed away om AIDS at the age of 53. Most are Democrats, and anti-Tmp fervor spurred many to Kirkpatrick for The New York TimThe number of gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr elected officials has ntued to surge, growg by about 17 percent the last year to nearly 1, 000 natnwi — more than double the number jt four years ago, acrdg to a new annual ranks now clu two ernors, two Uned Stat senators, ne members of Congrs, 189 state legislators and 56 mayors, acrdg to the report om the L. Parker was one of the first openly gay mayors of a major Amerin is the fifth year that the stute has surveyed the natn, and total L.

Rchie Torr has won his Hoe race for New York’s 15th Congrsnal District, makg him the first gay Ao Lato person elected to was all but certa to w his ep-blue Hoe district.

HOE DEMS PICK OPENLY GAY LAWMAKER TO LEAD MPAIGN ARM

"Tonight we ma history, " Torr tweeted Tuday night, llg "the honor of a lifetime to reprent a borough filled wh sential workers who risked their liv so that New York Cy uld live" durg the uld be joed by Mondaire Jon, who's currently ahead his race for New York's 17th Congrsnal District, as the first gay Black members of, 32, a Bronx native, is the youngt member of the New York Cy Council, where he has advoted for better public hog and programs to addrs racially ncentrated poverty.

'THIS HAS BEEN A LONG TIME COMG.' TWO NEW YORK CANDIDAT NOW POISED TO BEE FIRST OPENLY GAY BLACK, AO-LATO MEN CONGRS

”Mulls sisted his now-leted ment was reference to Torr’ “dangero polici and worldview, ” not his out polician has also squared off agast fellow Cy Council member Ruben Diaz Sr., his opponent the, 77, a Pentestal mister, has referred to gay people as “cursed” and voted agast legalizg same-sex marriage 2009 and 2011 as a member of the New York State Senate. Last year, Diaz scribed the New York Cy Council, which has five openly LGBTQ members, as beg "ntrolled by the homosexual muny.

”After the ment, Torr worked wh Cy Council Speaker Corey Johnson, who is also gay, to strip Diaz of mtee is the first openly gay elected official om the Bronx and blam Diaz for fosterg a “homophobic culture” the borough. ”A rerd 26 openly gay ndidat for the Hoe and Senate were on the ballot Tuday, acrdg to the LGBTQ Victory Fund, which advot for and tras out elected reprentativ. Thirteen members of the 118th Congrs intify as lbian, gay or bisexual, cludg Sen.

Forty years ago, Democrat Gerry Studds helped pave the way for this historic reprentatn by beg the first member of Congrs to e out as gay while office. But the challeng are ma substantially more plex when one is, as am I, both an elected public official and gay.

NEW HAMPSHIRE ULD ELECT S FIRST OPENLY GAY NGRSMAN

Back then, “no Congrsman had survived a public revelatn of their homosexualy, ” acrdg to Jam Kirchick, thor of Secret Cy: The Hidn History of Gay Washgton.

TWO NEW YORK PROGRSIV HAVE BEE THE FIRST OPENLY GAY BLACK PEOPLE ELECTED TO CONGRS.

“There was jt a lot of fear the untry, a lot of prejudice surroundg the AIDS crisis, ” says Kirchick, who noted that the Cold War also played a role fuelg homophobia.

“There was this fear that gay people uld not be tsted wh natnal secury secrets bee they n be blackmailed—even though there was not a sgle example of a gay person beg blackmailed to givg secrets to a foreign power. ” The ntroversy over Studds stck a chord wh a fellow gay lleague the Massachetts legatn, Barney Frank.

NEW YORK DEMOCRAT RCHIE TORR ELECTED AS THE FIRST OPENLY GAY BLACK MEMBER OF CONGRS

Their ntued electoral succs after g out were, to Frank, “the first ditns that Ameri was not as homophobic as people thought they were supposed to be. And he believ beg openly gay is an asset for policians, cg 2020 printial ndidate and Secretary of Transportatn Pete Buttigieg. As he jok, “By the time I retired 2012, beg gay was much more socially acceptable than beg a ngrsman.

A rerd number of LGBTQ lawmakers will be headg to Congrs next ssn after an Electn Day marked by historic New York, Democrats Rchie Torr and Mondaire Jon won their Hoe rac and beme the first two gay Black ndidat elected to told NBC News he is exced about servg alongsi Torr.

Of the seven LGBTQ cumbents on the ballot, all Democrats, won re-electn: David Cicille of Rho Island, Chris Pappas of New Hampshire, Mark Pon of Wisns, Angie Craig of Mnota, Mark Takano of California and Sharice Davids of Kansas, who beme first openly gay Native Amerin Congrs 2018. While only two noncumbents won their rac, Ga Ortiz Jon, an out lbian and former Air Force pta, lost her race Texas' 23rd Congrsnal District by jt 3 pots to Republin Tony, 39, an Iraq War veteran, would have been the first openly gay reprentative om Texas and the first Filipo Amerin woman Congrs.

TORR AND JON W AND WILL BEE 1ST GAY BLACK MEMBERS OF CONGRS

Baldw, who was elected to the Hoe of Reprentativ 1998, was also the first gay noncumbent elected to eher chamber of Congrs. Johnson’s mpaign announcement vio, released last month, highlighted the 57-year-old’s experience as an attorney, an openly gay Texan and a state lawmaker who unseated former Republin state Rep.

Durg her first year office 2019, Johnson joed four other openly gay women the Texas Hoe to form the state’s first LGBTQ uc, now one of the natn’s largt.

There are jt 12 out LGBTQ people are servg the current Congrs — 10 the Hoe and two the Senate — spe more than 7 percent of the natn’s adult populatn intifyg as lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr or “somethg other than heterosexual, ” acrdg to a Febary Gallup poll. Natnwi, the number of openly gay women elected to public office has stalled, up only 0.

LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE

Sign up for the never seen a member of Congrs jt like him — Black and openly gay — Mondaire Jon drew on quali that he admired om several sourc as he summoned the spiratn and urage to n for the Hoe of role mols were Black and Whe, straight and LGBTQ, male and female, policians and entertaers. He was elected to reprent New York’s 17th Congrsnal District, servg Wtchter and Rockland unti, and beme one of the first openly gay Black members to serve Congrs.

It was Frank Ocean’s album “Channel Orange, ” released 2012, which the sger and songwrer opened up about beg queer, that Jon said gave him the “nfince to not jt e out around the same time to my iends and fay, but years later to then n as an openly gay person for the Uned Stat Congrs. That’s why reprentatn matters — if I had seen an openly gay Black person the halls of Congrs when I was growg up, would have been livg proof that thgs really do get better.

But of urse, there had never been someone who was openly gay and Black the Uned Stat Congrs. And so I had to draw om people like Bayard Rt and Harvey perhaps surprisg to many people, most of all, was seeg sort of my life projected back at me through “Noah’s Arc, ” which was the first time that I had seen openly gay Black men thentic lovg relatnships.