The next legislative elections in the United States will be the first in history with LGBTQ candidates in all fifty statesan example of how that community has become an increasingly powerful electoral force, despite the fact that this year they have proposed more than 340 anti-LGBTQ laws.
A new report from Victory Fund found that of the 1,065 LGBTQ candidates who aspired in the primaries with a view to the mid-term elections of the November 8th678 won the nomination, a 18 percent increase from 2020. Victory Fund is dedicated to maintaining the number of openly LGBTQ elected officials at all levels of government.
Diversity
According to this NGO, the LGTBQ candidates for Congress are most racially and ethnically diverse in history. People identified as of color make up 41 percent, with a 57.7 percent growth since 2020. While the amount of Latino candidates doubled from six to twelve.
Currently in the US House of Representatives only nine people from the LGTBQ community hold seats, of the 435 that make up the Chamber. In the Senate, for its part, with one hundred seats, only two are occupied by people from this community. “Despite conservative estimates showing that LGBTQ people are 5.6 percent of the population, America would need to elect fifteen more LGBTQ peoplefor a total of 24, to have equal representation in the House of Representatives of the United States”, highlights the Victory Fund report.
The 86.1 percent of LGBTQ candidates who entered the primary race are Democrats, like Maura Healey and Tina Kotek, who are seeking to become the first lesbian governors in Massachusetts and Oregon, respectively. They are followed by Republicans with 4 percentoccupying three percent are the candidates of the extreme right party, The American Independent Party. Lastly, there are the candidates for the Green party with a percentage of 2.2 and followed by those of Libertarian Party with 1.1 percent.
The states that have the largest number of candidates from the LGBTQ community are, first of all, the state of California with eleven candidates for the House of Representatives. Second place is shared by the state of New York, with eight candidates for the House and one for the Senate, and the state of Texas with nine applicants for the camera. Among the states with only one candidate is Alabama, Connecticut, Maine y Virginia.
In the elections this November 8 in the United States, the vote will be all seats in the House of Representatives (the equivalent of the Chamber of Deputies in Argentina) and the amount per state is calculated in relation to the population. The Senate is handled differently, since a third of the number of seats is renewed. House terms last two years while Senate terms last six.
Hate made them stronger
“Voters are fed up with ruthless attacks on the LGBTQ community this year“, said Annise Parker it’s a statement. parker is former mayor of Houston and directs the NGO Victory Fund. “Fans want us to stay home and shut up, but their attacks have had the opposite effect and instead motivated a new wave of LGBTQ leaders running for elected office,” Parker said.
The number of nominations was hailed as a significant progress for a year in which state lawmakers proposed a record 340+ anti-LGBTQ laws, according to Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the largest gender equality rights group in the country. Much of the legislation aims to prohibit transgender children from participating in sports categories with their declared gender or to prevent school presentations that involve issues of gender inclusion.
“This year the most anti-transgender legislative package in history was approved in Alabama and it is alarming how attacks on young people are growing,” he said. Cathryn Oakley, director at HRC for legislative issues. “She also speaks of the desperation of our opponents. Public opinion moved so much in the direction of equality that they were forced to try to make people afraid of children.”he added.
The push for repressive laws towards this community spread from the base to Congress itself, where Republicans in the lower house propose prohibitions on public speaking of gender identity and sexual orientation. This March 28, the Governor of the state of Florida and Republican, Ron de Santis, approved the law popularly called “Don’t say gay” which prohibits classes on these subjects from kindergarten through third grade.
According to HRC, LGBTQ Americans are poised to become the fastest growing voting bloc at a scale, scope and speed that it will fundamentally reshape America’s electoral map. Right now, the community represents one in ten votersalthough the figure is expected to increase to one in seven by the end of the decade, estimates this NGO in a report published in October together with Bowling Green State University in Ohio.
Report: Sofia Trojan