Gay Politicians

Information on lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and gay politicians in the United States, both elected or current candidates, both in Congress and in the states. Check who is open about it and who is in the closet.

Winning equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer Americans requires the support of fair-minded politicians as well as openly LGBT politicians that put a personal face to legislation. Like in any institution, a critical mass of LGBT politicians is needed in order to represent the need for legal equality.

INVITED ARTICLES ON

LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER POLITICIANS

> Chuck Wolfe, President and CEO of the Victory Fund, writes about Don't Think Small: The Making of a Lesbian Politician.

A HISTORY OF FIRSTS

The first openly LGBT person in political office was Nancy Wechsler
> She was elected to the Ann Arbor City Council in 1972 as a member of the Human Rights Party and came out as a lesbian during her first and only term there.

The first person to win an election as openly LGBT was Kathy Kozachenko.

> In January 1974, she won a seat as an open lesbian on the Ann Arbor City Council as member of the Human Rights Party.

Harvey Milk was the fifth person elected to public office in the US as openly LGBT.
> He was elected in 1977 as a member of the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco.
> Four others were elected before him as openly LGBT:
- Kathy Kozachenko (Ann Arbor City Council, January 1974)
- Elaine Noble (Massachusetts House of Representatives, November 1974)
- Allan Spear (Minnesota State Senate, Nov 1976) (He came out during his first term and was reelected.)
- Jim Yeadon (Madison, WI City Council, April 1977)

The first openly gay Democratic member of the US House of Representatives was Gerry Studds (D-MA).
> He served from 1973 to 1997; he was in the closet when first elected.
> He acknowledged that he was gay in 1983 when he was censured by the House for having an consensual affair with a male page of legal age. He continued to win elections until he decided to retire.

The first openly gay Republican member of the US House of Representatives was Steve Gunderson (R-WI).
> He served from 1980 to 1997; he was in the closet when first elected.
> He was outed by another Republican because Gunderson was the only Republican in Congress to vote against the Defense of Marriage Act that President Bill Clinton signed into law

The first openly lesbian woman elected to the US Congress was Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) in 1998.
> She continues to proudly represent Wisconsin's 2nd district.

The first openly gay man elected to the US Congress was Jared Polis (D-CO) in 2008.
> He continues to proudly represent Colorado's 2nd district.

NOT ENOUGH REPRESENTATION

Any minority needs a critical mass of representatives.

Only two members US House of Representatives are openly gay men: Barney Frank (D-MA) and Jared Polis (D-CO)

Only one member of the US House of Representatives is openly lesbian: Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)

No members of the US House of Representatives are openly bisexual or transgender

No members of the US Senate are openly LGBT, although several are believed to be in the closet and vote against pro-equality legislation

20 states do not have an openly LGBT member of the State Legislature

SUPPORT LGBT POLITICIANS

eQualityGiving endorses candidates (independent of party affiliation) who are pro equality and are running for office at the Federal level as well as statewide. Among those who we endorsed for the 2010 election, seven are running as openly LGBT:

David Cicilline (D-RI) for election to the US House of Representatives
Scott Galvin (D-FL) for election to the US House of Representatives
Ed Potosnak (D-NJ) for election to the US House of Representatives
Steve Pougnet (D-CA) for election to the US House of Representatives
Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) for re-election for the US House of Representatives
Barney Frank (D-MA) for re-election for the US House of Representatives
Jared Polis (D-CO) for re-election for the US House of Representatives

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Since the movie "Milk" came out there is all this publicity that he was the first openly gay elected official. While not wanting to take anything away from Harvey-- who was in many ways a wonderful representative of our community, it does a disservice to get our history wrong. Thank you for correcting people's misconceptions of who our early elected officials were. I wanted to mention that Jerry DeGrieck was elected at the same time I was, from the same third party (The Human Rights Party) and came out publicly at the same City Council meeting. Your readers might want to know the story behind our coming out. Ann Arbor had passed an amendment to the Cities anti-discrimination ordinance including sexual preference in the first part of our term, before either of us came out publicly. When the Chief of Police came to City Council to give his yearly report, Jerry and I raised questions about the enforcement of the Human Rights Ordinance. I had been involved in an incident at a local bar, an incident that I considered a violation of the anti-discrimination ordinance. The policemen I called to the scene didn't seem to know anything about the ordinance and I brought this up at the Council meeting, asking what kind of training the police were getting about enforcement. In the process of discussing this particular incident, Jerry and I both came out publicly. While we might not have run as openly gay candidates (we both had our own reasons) we got a lot of publicity when we came out-- It made front page news in the local Ann Arbor paper and was covered in the Detroit papers as well and also some national media. We hoped by raising these issues it would raise the visibility of gays and lesbians and the seriousness of our lives. Nancy Wechsler, Cambridge, MA

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Last Modified 2010-08-15