LGBTQ officials in U.S. number nearly 1,000
The number of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender elected officials has continued to surge, growing by about 17% in the last year to nearly 1,000 nationwide — more than double the number just four years ago, according to a new annual report.
Their ranks now include two governors, two U.S. senators, nine members of Congress, 189 state legislators and 56 mayors, according to the report from the LGBTQ Victory Institute, which provides training to candidates seeking public office. The group identified 986 LGBTQ elected officials.
“There are more LGBTQ folks who are taking the plunge and deciding to run for office,” said Annise Parker, the institute’s president and chief executive. The mayor of Houston from 201016, Parker was one of the first openly gay mayors of a major U.S. city.
This is the fifth year that the institute has surveyed the nation, and total LGBTQ representation in elected offices has risen to 986 today, from 843 in 2020, 698 in 2019 and 448 in 2017, out of roughly a halfmillion elective positions.
Of all racial groups, Black LGBTQ elected officials grew at the fastest rate in the last year, with a 75% increase in representation, according to the report. The number of multiracial LGBTQ elected officials rose by 40%.
The institute tracks federal officeholders, statewide officials, state legislators as well as municipal and judicial officials. Every state except Mississippi now has at least one elected officeholder who identifies as LGBTQ, the report said.
Parker said that LGBTQ candidates could now win all across America, citing Mauree Turner, who was elected last year as a state legislator in Oklahoma and is Black, Muslim and nonbinary.
“The right candidate with the right message can be elected anywhere,” Parker said. But she said that bias and discrimination remain concerns, especially against transgender candidates.
The partisan divide is lopsided: 73% of LGBTQ officials are Democrats, and less than 3% Republicans, the institute said.
For now, though, city halls remain one of the few political arenas where LGBTQ officials are equitably represented, based on their share of the population, with six mayors among the top 100 cities. The most prominent is Mayor Lori Lightfoot of Chicago.
Despite the rapid growth it has charted, the institute estimates that LGBTQ people still account for just 0.19% of the nation’s elected officials, compared to an estimated 5.6% of the population.