Four openly gay lawmakers serve the Geia Legislature.

Contents:

• LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE
• FLORIDA’S FIRST OPENLY GAY STATE SENATOR ON ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ PASSG: ‘THE AIR WAS TAKEN OUT OF THE ROOM’
• WT VIRGIA REPUBLIN STATE LAWMAKER OUT AS GAY
• PROMENT GAY REPUBLINS HELPED SMOOTH THE WAY FOR MARRIAGE BILL
• MEET SAM PARK, FIRST OPENLY GAY MAN ELECTED TO GEIA'S GENERAL ASSEMBLY
• GAY LAWMAKERS CREATE FIRST LGBTQ UC ARIZONA LEGISLATURE
• GAY STATE LAWMAKERS HOPE GROWTH NUMBERS HELPS HUMANIZE THEIR

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

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. This hort is also the most diverse yet, thanks to the electn of the first three Black and openly gay reprentativ.

But ’s a rerd — and more than 30 years sce the state’s first openly gay legislator served.

At Democrat Glen Maxey beme the first openly gay state reprentative 1991, when the HIV/AIDS epimic was ragg and the state’s law crimalizg homosexualy uld still be enforced.

FLORIDA’S FIRST OPENLY GAY STATE SENATOR ON ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ PASSG: ‘THE AIR WAS TAKEN OUT OF THE ROOM’

“In my first term, I had legislators who would jt yell out, ‘Don’t vote for the gay guy’s bill, ’” he relled. “And jt havg an openly gay person there who uld teract and make relatnships, or havg the symbol of the muny beg jt a regular hard-workg legislator, was a huge step forward for the muny.

WT VIRGIA REPUBLIN STATE LAWMAKER OUT AS GAY

Bis Garcia, the other three hmen are also the Hoe’s first woman and men who are Black and openly gay: Reps.

Jolanda Jon was “stunned” to know that she’s the first Black and openly gay member of the Texas Hoe, havg won a special electn May. Latvia swore the first openly gay print of a Baltic natn Rkēvičs, who sce 2011 was the untry’s foreign mister, was elected by Parliament May after Print Egils Levs did not seek re-electn.

PROMENT GAY REPUBLINS HELPED SMOOTH THE WAY FOR MARRIAGE BILL

”Rkēvičs “proudly” announced he is gay on Twter November 2014, though the untry, a former Soviet republic, is not pecially LGBTQ-clive.

” He said he knew there would be “mega hysteria, ” but he end wh the hashtag “#Proudtobegay. ”He is one of jt a few openly gay heads of state the world. She is thought to be the first openly gay prime mister the was an active unnist her nearly 10 years workg as a flight attendant, acrdg to the Council of Women World Lears, a work of female heads of state.

After the accatn, he said, he was chased down the street by reporters, one of whom yelled, “Yet they say you’re a homosexual!

MEET SAM PARK, FIRST OPENLY GAY MAN ELECTED TO GEIA'S GENERAL ASSEMBLY

”Xavier Bettel Prime Mister of Luxembourg (2013-prent)Luxembourg Prime Mister Xavier Bettel at a news nference Belgra, Serbia, on July Vojovic / APBettel was first elected prime mister of Luxembourg 2013, and 2018 he beme the first openly gay prime mister the world to be re-elected for a send marriage beme legal Luxembourg 2015, and the same year Bettel beme the first servg European Unn lear to marry a same-sex partner, the BBC recently cricized a Hungarian law that bans school tnal materials and TV shows for people unr 18 that are emed to promote LGBTQ ntent, Rters reported.

“To be natnally blamed, to be nsired as not normal, to be nsired as a danger for young people — ’s not realizg that beg gay is not a choice, ” Bettel said, acrdg to Rters. Gay, lbian and bisexual people n serve the ary, but transgenr people nnot. “Hopefully this will blow over three or four days, and then I won’t be known as the gay mister, ” she told The Associated Prs at the Varadkar Prime Mister of Ireland (2017-20, 2022-prent)Irish Prime Mister Leo Varadkar Bssels on June 30.

GAY LAWMAKERS CREATE FIRST LGBTQ UC ARIZONA LEGISLATURE

Ludovic Mar / AFP - Getty Imag fileVaradkar beme Ireland’s first openly gay Taoiseach, or prime mister, 2017 and served until 2020.

Jackson will be California's first Black gay state legislator. Gay ndidate Shawn Kumagai nced his race for Assembly District 20 on are Democrats; California, the top two ndidat the primary electn advance to the general electn, regardls of state's four out Assembly members won reelectn Tuday, and the four out senators are office through 2024.

""Ls than 45 years ago, California elected s first openly gay official, Harvey Milk, " add Legislative LGBTQ Cc Chair Evan Low, a member of the Assembly. California legislators, all Democrats, are proud of their succs but say unrsr the hard work that remas their own state and elsewhere, such as handlg the fallout om measur such as Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, which bans some lsons on sexual orientatn and genr inty, or laws other stat limg transgenr stunts’ participatn sports or blockg genr-affirmg medil re for tone was further shroud by the Saturday night shootg at a gay nightclub Colorado, which killed five people and wound many others. Jared Polis, who jt won a send term, was the first openly gay man elected as a state’s ernor when he won 2018.

GAY STATE LAWMAKERS HOPE GROWTH NUMBERS HELPS HUMANIZE THEIR

Meanwhile, the Legislature has not yet reached pary genr or race and ethnicy, acrdg to statistics om the California State Hampshire and Vermont have each had more LGBTQ legislators, acrdg to the stute, but their legislatur are bigger than California’s and so have not reached the 10% 2022 electns are a landspe of firsts for LGBTQ people, cludg Corey Jackson, the California Legislature’s first gay Black man, who noted that Ain Amerins — particularly Black trans people — are pecially margalized.