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Sarah McBride has become the first openly trans person to win a Senate seat.
Rich Fury / Getty Images for the human rights campaign (
- Sarah McBride has become the first openly transgender person to win a Senate seat.
- At least 117 LGBTIQ + candidates have won seats so far.
- The historic election continues, with Biden leading the way at the time of the report.
LGBT + candidates scored a series of historic victories in the US elections, including Sarah McBride, who became the first openly transgender person to win a state Senate seat.
At least 117 of a record 574 LGBTIQ + candidates on the ballot had won at time of publication, nine of them trans, according to the LGBTQ Victory Fund, which backs LGBTIQ + candidates.
“This is a huge milestone for members of the LGBTQ community,” said Stephanie Byers, who became the nation’s first trans Native American state legislator in the Kansas House of Representatives.
“Gender is no longer the only thing someone sees when we run for office … they also realize that we are broader, not just on LGBT issues,” the 57-year-old retired music teacher told the Thomson Foundation. Reuters.
While data is still emerging on other LGBT + candidates, other winners included Ritchie Torres and Mondaire Jones, respectively, the first gay Afro-Latino and black men elected to Congress.
“Tonight’s victories for LGBTQ people of color and transgender Americans across the country are historic and long overdue,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, president of the LGBTIQ + rights organization GLAAD, in a statement.
“Their victories represent a leap forward for LGBTQ acceptance and a demand for more of the progress and equality that their very presence demonstrates.”
Victory
McBride, who became the first trans person to address a major party convention when she spoke at the Democratic National Convention in 2016, is the nation’s highest-ranking openly trans official after winning the state Senate race. of Delaware.
The 30-year-old tweeted that she hoped her victory “will show an LGBTQ child that our democracy is big enough for them too.”
Veteran human rights activist Peter Tatchell, who traveled with McBride to Australia and New Zealand last year, said his election marked “an outstanding victory for trans people.”
Other historic victories included Mauree Turner, who identifies as non-binary, male or female, and became Oklahoma’s first Muslim state representative, according to the LGBTQ Victory Fund.
“Conversion therapy and trans students who don’t get a chance to play the sport they’d like to play … that’s the kind of thing we’re fighting when we get here,” Turner, 27, said in an interview on Wednesday. .
Michele Rayner became the first openly LGBT + black woman to be elected to the Florida state legislature, while Shevrin Jones became the state’s first black LGBT + state senator. Georgia got its first openly LGBTIQ + state legislator, Kim Jackson.
“Having visible LGBTQ people in positions of political power is crucial to ensuring that LGBTQ people are defended across the United States,” said Eloise Stonborough, associate director for policy and research at Stonewall, Europe’s largest LGBTIQ + organization.
Queer
A National Elections Group exit poll conducted by Edison Research indicated that LGBTIQ + voters represent 7% of the 2020 electorate, more than the estimated 4.5% of the adult population.
LGBT + voters made up 6% of the electorate in the 2018 midterm elections and 5% in the 2016 presidential elections.
“The more of us running, the better,” said Jabari Brisport, a newly elected New York state senator and the state’s first openly LGBT + African-American lawmaker.
“We have to keep pushing and opening the door more and more so that more of our queer brothers enter politics and fight for an agenda that elevates us as equal citizens like everyone else.”
As the outcome of the 2020 presidential election staggered to the razor’s edge, with millions of votes still unaccounted for, LGBT + rights groups said early victories showed the growing political importance of the community.
“During the past three elections, the proportion of LGBTQ voters has continued to rise, solidifying our community as a key rising constituency that politicians must woo,” Human Rights Campaign (HRC) President Alphonso David said in a statement. .
“Our problems matter, our votes matter, and politicians across the country have taken notice.”
Alan Wardle, director of the Global Equality Caucus, a network of parliamentarians who support LGBT around the world, said the elected representatives sent “a strong signal that LGBT + people belong in public life.”
