Tammy Baldwin Elected to U.S. Senate
Eighteen LGBTQ+ people have ever been elected to the U.S. Congress. Thirteen of them have been out while in office. Seven of them have been out when elected. Two of them have been women. One of them has served in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. She is Tammy Baldwin.
Today is November 6, 2017, and on this date, five years back, in 2012, Tammy Baldwin became the first publicly gay person to ever be elected to the U.S. Senate.
Tammy Baldwin served in the Wisconsin State Assembly from 1993–1999. In 1999, she ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, and won. This made her the first openly gay person to ever be elected to Congress. And, oh, by the way, she was also the first woman the state of Wisconsin ever elected to Congress, as well. In 1999.
Before her election, nine gay men had served in the House of Representatives. Four of these men had never actually come out (or, in one case, would come out several years later) and the other five came out during their service. Two of them in the 1980’s, and three in the 1990’s.
She held her seat in the House for seven terms, totaling fourteen years, before deciding to run for the Senate. In that election, Baldwin defeated former Governor of Wisconsin Tommy Thompson with a clear majority. This made her the first openly gay person to ever be elected to the Senate, and only the second gay Senator ever. (Harris Wofford, the only other gay Senator, wouldn’t come out publicly until 2016, 21 years after he left office.) There have been nearly 2,000 Senators in U.S. History. Tammy Baldwin is the only one that could get elected while being a publicly out lesbian.
And I am seriously overemphasizing the gay part, and drastically downplaying the fact that she’s a woman, because the fact that a woman can get elected to the Senate, in and of itself, is a miracle, let alone a lesbian.
Since Baldwin first went to Washington, six more openly gay Representatives have been elected, which gives me some hope for the future, despite the ongoing struggles facing this country.
Happy Anniversary, Senator Baldwin. You will go down in history as an American hero and a trailblazer. I wish you all the best.
Thanks for reading, and be sure to check back tomorrow for the Transcontinental Railroad you DIDN’T learn about in school.
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