LGBTQ HISTORY IN MOTION

Fantastic headlines celebrating the 2020 Rainbow Wave are still rolling in! Over 290 LGBTQ candidates have officially won their elections as of this morning, with 41 still undecided. It is the largest number of LGBTQ people to ever win on an Election Day.

LGBTQ people of color shattered rainbow ceilings in states like Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Oklahoma and New York. Learn more about their victories here!

The number of trans state legislators nearly doubled, and numerous states elected out trans legislators for the first time.

While Texas didn't flip this year, LGBTQ women continue to lead the way in the Lone Star State. The latest candidate to join the state’s all-woman LGBTQ Caucus, Ann Johnson, reflected on joining the growing Caucus.

Jess Benham is Pennsylvania’s first out bisexual state Representative and first Autistic person elected to the body. She spoke with them. about why she chose to run and how it feels to shatter barriers.

2021 STARTS NOW

Virginia Delegate Danica Roem is officially running for reelection in 2021!

Looking for the next Rainbow Wave? Look to New York City, where more than a dozen LGBTQ candidates are on the ballot for City Council.

Elisa Crespo, hoping to be the first trans person of color elected in the city, is running for Ritchie Torres’ old seat. She’s also pushing for New York to enact a public option for employment.

Marti Cummings is ready to make history as the first drag artist and the first out nonbinary person to hold public office in New York state. Yass, we can indeed!

Right now, just two of five openly LGBTQ Councilmembers are people of color. Wilfredo Florentino is ready to add to their ranks. Florentino was just named one of City & State’s 40 Under 40!

Lynn Schulman is fighting to be the first out lesbian elected in Queens. She’s hard at work meeting her future voters where they are – including in line to vote!

Council Speaker Corey Johnson won’t be running next year to due term limits. But his top aid, Erik Bottcher, is ready to hold the seat for LGBTQ people.

WARNING SIGNS

Despite the historic number of wins on Election Day, there was troubling pushback to the 2020 Rainbow Wave. Both Gina Ortiz Jones and Jon Hoadley faced extreme homophobic and transphobic attacks that hurt their races.

Fear-based attacks like these force LGBTQ candidates to defend, rather than define, their records and lives to voters. And even more worrying, they have a chilling effect, silencing potential future candidates.

CALIFORNIA’S NEXT LGBTQ SENATOR?

With U.S. Senator Kamala Harris headed to the White House, we joined our friends at Equality California in urging Governor Gavin Newsom to achieve another historic first: appointing California’s first out U.S. Senator.

Paid for by LGBTQ Victory Fund. Your contribution may be used in connection with federal, state and local elections and be subject to federal, state and local laws. Contributions to LGBTQ Victory Fund are not tax deductible. Victory Fund members do not have governance participation rights.

LGBTQ Victory Fund has helped thousands of openly LGBTQ candidates win elections up and down the ballot, from sea to shining sea since our founding in 1991. We believe representation is power so we elected U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin and Kyrsten Sinema, Governors Jared Polis and Kate Brown, all seven LGBTQ members of U.S. Congress and countless candidates for state and local government, including Virginia Delegate Danica Roem, Colorado state Representative Leslie Herod and Pennsylvania Assemblymember Brian Sims. And with an unprecedented number of LGBTQ people running for office in this year, we’ll need your support to make 2020 the next Rainbow Wave.

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