Colorado just elected Jared Polis the nation's first openly gay governor Colorado voters on Tuesday did something no other state has don...
Colorado voters on Tuesday did something no other state has done: They elected an openly gay man as governor.
Jared Polis, the Democratic congressman from Boulder, handily beat Walker Stapleton, Coloradoâs Republican treasurer, 52 percent to 45 percent, according to the unofficial count at 8 p.m. as ballots were still being counted.
âColorado is a state that values diversity,â Polis said in an pre-Election Day interview. âWeâre willing to elect people that are going to do a good job for our state regardless of their background. ⦠I think itâs exciting to show how far the LGBT community has come that it doesnât stand in the way of being elected to the highest office in the state.â
For the national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, Polisâ win is a watershed moment decades in the making â" amplified in part by the resistance movement of the Trump era. National leaders in the LGBT rights movement said Polisâ win would have profound effects for decades to come.
âWith Jared Polis becoming the first out gay governor of a state, I have no doubt today, there are children and teenagers and young adults who are looking to him and saying, âIâm going to be my stateâs governor one day,ââ said Rea Carey, the executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund, a nonpartisan political nonprofit. âHis win inspires others.â
Polisâ race headlined a record number of LGBT candidacies across the nation. According to the LGBTQ Victory Fund, a political nonprofit that supports LGBT candidates, 147 147 LGBT people ran for state or federal office.
In Colorado, there are six LGBT candidates for the statehouse.
A Polis win could also be considered the final step in rewriting Coloradoâs legacy as the âHate State,â an epithet affixed after voters here in 1992 approved a constitutional amendment forbidding local governments from creating special protections for the LGBT community.
âItâs a historic win â" not just for the LGBT community but for the state of Colorado,â said Mary Parker, president and CEO of the Victory Fund. âThe fact that the state of Colorado, in 25 years, has gone from being dubbed the âHate Stateâ to a place that can elect someone who is not just openly gay, but publicly gay, thatâs historic.â
Polisâ sexual orientation wasnât a drag
Polisâ victory was paved by years of activism to change the perception of gay people, Parker said.
âItâs the culmination of a lot of work of activists to win the hearts and minds of voters to make sure that when Jared entered the race, he wasnât judged as a gay man, but as a public servant,â she said.
It wasnât so long ago that a candidate or elected official coming out sent shock waves through the news media and the electorate, and could potentially ruin any shot of an electoral win, said Eric Marcus, an LGBT historian who produces the âMaking Gay Historyâ podcast. Former New Jersey Gov.Jim McGreevey, for example, resigned in 2004 after coming out amid a scandal.
âThat this is such a nonstory makes it a big story,â Marcus said. âWeâve reached a point in our history that the fact there is a gay candidate running for governor is not the headline. For those of us who have been around for a while, itâs shocking. Itâs nice.â
Polis, a Colorado native who spent his childhood in California with his self-proclaimed âhippieâ parents, acknowledged he briefly wrestled with concerns over coming out as a public official.
âThere was always some tension between wanting to go into public service,â Polis said.
But Polisâ sexual orientation has never been the sort of handicap one might expect. In 2007, when he first ran for Congress, it was rarely mentioned in the press, despite the fact his candidacy came just one year after Colorado approved a state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
Polis, who shares two children with his longtime partner Marlon Reis, said he hopes his win makes it even easier for LGBT candidates â" in both parties â" to run and win without worrying about persecution.
âI hope that both parties look more like America,â he said. âWhich means people of different colors, people of different genders and people with different sexual orientations and gender identities.â
The Trump effect
Across the nation, candidates for state and federal office arenât just more likely to be LGBT. They are more likely to be women and people of color, too. Trumpâs election and his policies that followed â" including a travel ban on Muslim majority countries and forbidding transgender individuals from serving in the military â" have helped spur the new wave of candidates.
However, gay rights leaders stressed that Trump was just one factor.
âThe last two years have given LGBTQ a lot to mobilize around,â Carey said. âWhile Trump may have motivated some people, itâs hard to wake up and just say youâre going to run for office.â
Rochelle Galindo embodies the 2018 wave. She is a Latina lesbian who is running to represent the city of Greeley in Coloradoâs General Assembly.
Galindo said Trump is top of mind, but her passion for politics began in high school, long before he was in office. A former Greeley City Council member, Galindo representing her communities in policy debates was what drove her to run.
âWhat really excites people to be part of their democracy is seeing people who reflect who they are,â she said.
Still, Polis and other LGBT candidates will be expected to stand up for civil rights, said David Duffield, the Colorado GLBT Centerâs history coordinator.
âIt will be demanded of him to do things on gay rights,â Duffield said. âHeâll be a foil to a lot of the homophobia weâve historically seen.â
While Colorado has some of the most progressive LGBT protections in the United States, there are ongoing debates Polis will be pressured to weigh in on, like the ongoing tension between religious freedom and civil liberties.
âWhat weâre looking for is how heâs going to govern in a way that recognizes the dignity of all people,â said Jeff Hunt, director of the Centennial Institute, a conservative think tank based at Colorado Christian University. âWe want Governor Polis to succeed; we want him to succeed for all people; we want Colorado to succeed for all people.â
Healing, yet preparing for backlash
For many LGBT Coloradans and those across the nation who remember when Colorado passed Amendment 2, Polisâ win closes a dark chapter and provides hope.
Ray Rodriguez, a Colorado LGBT rights activist and Polis supporter, was 12 and struggling with his sexuality when voters approved the amendment. And before the U.S. Supreme Court could rule four years later that the amendment was unconstitutional, Rodriguez asked his doctor about conversion therapy â" even castration â" as remedies to his sexuality.
âI will always know how it feels to be ostracized as a child,â he said. But Polisâ election âwill help. A big part of what everyone looks for is respect. To be dehumanized as a child and to be humanized as an adult is cathartic.â
While LGBT people here and across the nation are celebrating Polisâ historic win, leaders have a warning: Be prepared for pushback.
âYou canât stop fighting,â Marcus, the LGBT historian, said. âYou can have a transformational moment and then you have a backlash.â
Mardi Moore, the executive director of Out Boulder, an LGBT resource center, said her team is bracing for an uptick in hate violence.
âWeâre making sure the phones are on, the phones are staffed,â she said. âWeâre checking emails, we just want to make sure weâre a resource.â
Still, Moore is optimistic Polisâ win will do more to propel the community forward.
âFor some little kid in rural Las Animas, Colorado, who is gay and never come out,â she said, âthis moment says itâs OK to be gay.â
Source: Google News | Netizen 24 United States
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