Over 1,000 US politicians are LGBTQ, but fair representation is still a long way off, report says

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All states but one, Mississippi, have elected an LGBTQ official, according to the LGBTQ Victory Institute, a group that identifies and trains potential LGBTQ candidates. Yet LGBTQ elected officials make up less than 0.2% of all U.S. elected officials, and to achieve fair representation, more than 28,000 LGBTQ people must be elected, the organization said.

“We need a moonlit effort to catch up, and that requires more LGBTQ people to show up,” said Elliot Imse, vice president of communications at the LGBTQ Victory Fund.

When queer and trans people are elected, their mere presence “has a disproportionate influence on policies and attitudes,” according to Andrew Reynolds, a senior researcher at Princeton University who studies LGBTQ politics, among other areas.

Their colleagues are able to “put a face to a community,” Reynolds told CNN, noting that it breeds empathy for LGBTQ people and issues.

It’s especially important to elect more LGBTQ people, Imse said, now that more than 30 states have introduced bills targeting transgender residents.

“State legislatures and city councils across the country are launching relentless legislative attacks against LGBTQ people – and in particular trans people – and our best defense is to have LGBTQ elected officials in these legislative bodies,” he said. -he declares.

Over 140 LGBTQ leaders have been elected in the past year

Between June 2020 and June 2021, 143 more LGBTQ leaders were elected, bringing the total number of LGBTQ elected officials in the United States to 986, most of whom hold local office, according to the report. (Accurate data on LGBTQ leaders has been difficult to collect both today and historically, as not all LGBTQ people have shared their sexual orientation with voters or during their tenure. officials who disclosed this information.)

The United States made significant progress in 2020: Tennessee, which before 2020 had never elected an LGBTQ official, elected two at the state level: Rep. Torrey Harris, a Democrat, and Rep. Eddie Mannis, a Republican. US Representative Ritchie Torres from New York has become the first black and Latin American homosexual to sit in Congress. Transgender politicians such as Delaware State Senator Sarah McBride and Vermont State Representative Taylor Small, among others, have joined Virginia Del. Danica Roem, who in 2017 became one of the country’s first trans elected officials.

Last year also saw a 51% increase in the number of elected LGBTQ officials of color, according to the report. Today, about 29% of all elected LGBTQ officials are people of color, compared to just 12.1% of the entire elected population.

The election of former President Donald Trump and the policies he supported that impacted LGBTQ people – such as removing protections against discrimination for trans people and banning trans people from serving in the military – have been “a major motivator for many LGBTQ people” to run for office, Imse said.

He said it remained essential to continue electing officials keen to protect the rights of LGBTQ voters.

Working with LGBTQ leaders can impact policies and attitudes

The election of queer and trans leaders can play an important role in the types of policies adopted and the attitudes of society towards the LGBTQ community, said Reynolds, a researcher at Princeton University.

Reynolds wrote a newspaper article in 2013 which revealed that once in office, gay leaders have a “transformative effect on the opinions and voting behavior of their heterosexual colleagues.” When in positions of power, LGBTQ leaders can establish programs that benefit queer and trans people and forge alliances with non-LGBTQ colleagues to join their causes, he wrote. It’s still true, he said, but since then LGBTQ issues have continued to polarize politicians, especially when it comes to the rights of transgender people. Bills that would impact transgender children and adolescents have been introduced in more than half of U.S. states and, if passed, would limit their access to gender-affirming health care, participation in school sports that match their gender, and more.

Seeing queer and trans people in positions of power, however, is always meaningful to LGBTQ youth who seek a similar path, Reynolds said.

“Every queer person in a highly visible position says it’s natural, normal, and to be expected,” Reynolds said.

As of 2021, there are several high-profile examples of LGBTQ politicians: Governor Jared Polis of Colorado is gay and Governor Kate Brown of Oregon is bisexual. In Congress, there is Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, one of the first lesbian women in the United States Senate, and Representative Sharice Davids of Kansas, one of the first Native American lesbian women elected to federal office. And there are more than 600 local officials who are LGBTQ, according to the report. The United States has yet to elect more than 28,000 LGBTQ leaders to achieve fair representation, according to the Victory Institute report – LGBTQ people make up more than 5% of the population, according to polling firm Gallup, but less than 0, 2% of all elected officials in the United States. But more and more LGBTQ people are running for office and American voters are electing them in many cases.

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