LGBT People in Office from 1900-)

LGBT men and women have struggled to have their voices heard over the years. Sometimes, the
struggle they overcame became miraculous in that they reached a place where they gathered enough
support from their communities to have their voices be represented by a singular LGBT person.

One of the biggest milestones happened in 1974 over in Ann Harbor, Michigan. Kathy
Kozachenko became the first publicly-LGBT American to be elected into public office when she secured a
position in the City Council. Kozanchenko held a progressive agenda; in college, students supported her
idea to fine people for possession of small amounts of marijuana a maximum of five dollars. She was on
the council for a single two-year term before deciding to resign from being politically active. In 1976,
Harvey Milk started his campaign on a pro-gay rights agenda. He went on to be elected into political
office in California being the first openly gay male to do so. Milk asked a fellow gay rights activist, Gilbert
Baker, to create an emblem that signified pride in being gay. From that stemmed the rainbow flag which
showcased in 1978 at a pride parade. Milk was assassinated in by Dan White in 1978. Keith St. John was
voted into the Albany, New York common council in 1989, becoming the first openly gay black person to
be elected into U.S. public office. In 1993, he won another 4-year term as one of the Albany Common
Council Alderman. Similarly, Ricardo Gonzalez was the first gay Hispanic person to win a public office
position.

The first gay member of congress was Gerry Studds from Massachusetts, an American
Democratic Congressman. He served in Congress for 24 years and in 1983 was censured over an
inappropriate sexual relationship with a 17-year-old male. Studds argued that his involvement with the
teenager was purely a “consensual relationship with a young adult.” His scandal garnered negative
attention towards the LGBT community. Conservatives used it as leverage to tear down LGBT
progressivism. Of course, the pedophilia was no issue with Roy Moore.

U.S. Representative Barney Frank is arguably considered the most important and influential
openly gay politician. He gained notoriety after Republican Larry Craig attempted to censure and
remove Frank from office over Houston a male prostitute. Frank later criticized Craig after he was
arrested in 2007 for proposing himself to an undercover police officer. He was known to be witty; he
detailed how he could not get through a report about President Clinton’s relationship with Monica
Lewinsky, citing that it was “too much reading about heterosexual sex.”

Annise Parker is the country’s first lesbian to become mayor of one of the largest cities. She
described her influence on the city’s image, “I will take credit for having raised Houston’s coolness
factor. When I was first elected, the responses fell into two categories. One was ‘Houston elected a
lesbian?’ The other was, ‘Houston? This happened in Houston?’”

Stu Rasmussen gained attention after becoming the nation’s first transgender mayor of
Silverton, Oregon in 2008. Though Rasmussen prefers he/him and was assigned male at birth, he has
breast implants and at times identifies as Carla Fong. He has described himself as fiscally conservative
but socially liberal. Katherine Brown made history after being the first openly bisexual governor in US
History when she was elected in Oregon’s 2016 special election. She announced she will be running for
governor as full-term in the upcoming 2018 elections.
 As of 2016, all fifty states have elected openly LGBT people into public office in some way. With
this, there is a growing number of LGBT members seeking to be in political office as acceptance towards
the community continues to open up.