Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore
Kyrsten Sinema, who will become the first openly bisexual U.S. Senator
So, what can we say about the election results of Nov. 6? Representation matters. While the blue wave delivered us a LGBTQ-friendly Democratic House of Representatives, and a new LGBTQ-friendly governor here in Wisconsin, the tsunami brought with it more than one wave. It included a wave of diversity that actually made Congress look a lot more like America and a pink wave of new women elected from every direction. It is likely that the Speaker of the House will once again be San Francisco’s Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, one of only two people in modern political history to become Speaker, lose the gavel and get the gavel back. #GIRLPOWER
Running full speed, right alongside the pink wave, is a wave of newly elected people of color. Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Antonio Delgado of New York, Joe Neguse of Colorado, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and one of the best incoming smiles and stories, Jahana Hayes of Connecticut. We have a new Latina Governor of New Mexico in Michelle Lujan Grisham. We also have a host of New African American, Latinx and other minority statewide offices, including secretaries of state, attorneys general, treasurers and, of course, lieutenant governors, like Wisconsin’s own Lt. Governor-Elect Mandela Barnes. Look at America, showing off and actually being great.
But there is also another wave riding right behind it. A rainbow wave splashed down all across America last Tuesday, allowing the ranks of LGBTQ elected officials to explode. Starting here in Wisconsin, we reelected our openly-LGBTQ U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin to a second term. She will be joined by openly bisexual Democratic nominee Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. We also returned Madison’s Congressman Mark Pocan to Washington, where he will be joined by the new Congresswoman from Kansas, Sharice Davids, the first openly-LGBTQ Native American woman ever was elected to the House of Representatives; Angie Craig of Minnesota; and Chris Pappas of New Hampshire. They will join the six current members of the House that are openly LGBTQ. The ever-expanding LGBTQ caucus in Madison also grew and now consist of recently reelected State Senator Tim Carpenter along with State Representatives JoCasta Zamarripa and Mark Spritzer. We also have new State Representative Marisabel Cabrera joining the caucus in Madison as well.
America also has elected its first openly gay governor, with Governor-Elect Jared Polis, his husband—the incoming First Gentleman of Colorado Marlon Reis—and their two children moving into the governor’s mansion. He now joins reelected Governor Kate Brown of Oregon as the only two LGBTQ governors in America. Shout-outs also go to Lupe Valdez of Texas and Christine Hallquist of Vermont, both Democratic nominees for governor in their respective states. Hallquist is the first transgender woman ever nominated by a major political party for Governor in American history.
So, what does this new burst of electoral freedom mean, now that there are so many new elected members of the LGBTQ community? More representation means more access to spaces that have in recent months been downright hostile towards the LGBTQ community, its policy goals and its existence. Legislation like the Equality Act, sponsored by Sen. Baldwin, would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include protections that ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in the areas of employment, housing and public accommodations nationwide.
The new Democratic majority in the House can stop a lot of the worst ambitions of the Trump administration, which might include terrorizing minorities, breaking up immigrant families and leaving Flint, Michigan, without clean water. But the Democratic House cannot do this by itself. Without control of the Senate and without a President to sign these bills, they will have to be stuck bottled up in the House waiting, at least until noon on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021.
