![]() ![]() There is still a long way to go before LGBTQ+ people are fully represented in Congress. Park’s election months later was arguably an even more powerful counterpoint to that proposed legislation than the veto. “I introduce myself as an openly gay Korean-American millennial who was elected in the state of Georgia, and I always get a double take,” says Sam Park, a lawyer who was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives on the same night Trump won in 2016.Įarlier that same year, the Georgia state legislature passed an anti-LGBTQ+ “religious freedom” bill, but it was later vetoed by the governor. That may be surprising to some who haven’t been tracking the cultural change around LGBTQ+ issues in more conservative parts of the country. According to Victory Fund, LGBTQ+ candidates have run or are running in every state but Alabama this year. With its five LGBTQ+ state legislators - more than half of whom have been elected since 2017 - Georgia is proof that queer people are increasingly winning everywhere, not just in blue districts and states, but in red ones, too. ![]() Georgia itself is a case study in the queer political transformation that the 2020 election cycle will further propel. “I can respect that while also challenging it." “I always say I look forward to bringing my theologically-trained self to the Senate to have those conversations with people who, I think, actually are trying to be faithful in their own way,” she says. “ election, I think, was a turning point in seeing that we could have a seat at the table, and that our voice not only mattered but it would be heard,” says Sarah McBride, a Human Rights Campaign spokesperson and transgender advocate running for Delaware State Senate. Fast forward three years and there are now four transgender state legislators nationwide - a number that is certain to increase after the 2020 election. Roem became the first openly transgender person to be elected and seated in a state legislature. One of the most striking examples of this “virtuous cycle” in action is the impact of transgender candidate Danica Roem’s groundbreaking victory in 2017. In fact, so many candidates are running now that Victory Fund is “stretching the limits of capacity,” according to Parker. By now, LGBTQ+ people have watched so many queer candidates win in previous elections that it has “created a virtuous cycle where people can see success - and success leads to more success,” as Parker explains. The 2020 election is still a referendum on the Trump administration’s homophobic and transphobic assaults, to be sure, but it is also something different: A multiplicative unlocking of queer electoral potential. Because his district is overwhelmingly Democratic, Torres is on track to make history once again, and he is humbled by it. Torres won reelection in 2017, launched a congressional campaign last year, and defeated Rubén Díaz Sr., a Democrat with a decades-long history of homophobic comments and legislative stances, to win his primary earlier this year. Growing up in poverty directly shaped the issues he focused on as a council member - issues like housing, LGBTQ+ youth homelessness, and gun violence. “It occurred to me that there’s no one in public office who looks like me, who has the same experiences that I do, who’s fighting for people like me, and so maybe I can be that person,” he says. In 2013, at the age of 25, Torres successfully ran for City Council, making him the youngest elected official in New York City. “That experience of inequality in the shadow of Donald Trump is part of what inspired me to run for public office,” says Torres. That didn’t sit right with Torres when he was living in poverty, growing up in a single-parent household where heat and hot water were far from guarantees. According to Washington Post reporting, New York City taxpayers footed a $127 million bill to construct the course. Torres calls his life “something of a metaphor,” having grown up in public housing in the South Bronx across the street from the Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point. ![]()
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