LGBTQ representation in government hits fresh high

LGBTQ representation in government has made leaps and bounds over the past year, but there’s still a long way to go before equitable representation is achieved, according to numbers released Thursday by the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute.

The number of openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people elected to public office between June 2022 and May 2023 increased by 13.6 percent, according to the organization’s annual overview of elected officials in the U.S. At least 1,185 are currently serving, the most on record and more than double what representation was in 2017, when the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute first measured it.

Compared with elected officials overall, LGBTQ officials are significantly more racially and ethnically diverse, according to Thursday’s report, but remain less diverse than the total U.S. population.

The number of openly LGBTQ elected officials of color rose roughly 23 percent this year, with Latino and Hispanic officeholders leading the way. The number of Black LGBTQ officials increased by 18 to 125 in 2023, according to the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute, and the number of Asian American and Pacific Islander LGBTQ elected officials rose to 37 this year, up 19 percent from 2022.

The majority of openly LGBTQ officials — 783 — are white, and more than 91 percent are cisgender, according to Thursday’s report, though transgender and nonbinary representation saw a notable bump this year.

Openly transgender and nonbinary officials now account for 8.1 percent of all LGBTQ elected officials, up from 6.9 percent last year. There are currently zero known intersex elected officials.

When elected officials are grouped by their sexual orientation, pansexuals and bisexuals saw the greatest gains over the past year, increasing 65 percent and 34 percent, respectively. As in prior years, growth in lesbian officials nearly stalled, up less than 1 percent over 2022.

All told, 0.23 percent of U.S. elected officials are LGBTQ, according to Thursday’s report, meaning more than 36,000 openly LGBTQ state, local and federal officials need to be elected to achieve equitable representation. More than 7 percent of the nation’s voting-age population identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, according to a February Gallup poll.

To achieve equitable representation in Congress, for instance, voters must elect 25 more openly LGBTQ members — 20 in the House and five in the Senate – for a total of 37, according to Thursday’s report. Twelve openly LGBTQ people are serving in the current Congress, with 10 in the House and two in the Senate.

Voters in all 50 states, along with U.S. territories and the District of Columbia likewise need to elect an additional 319 openly LGBTQ state lawmakers for equitable representation, according to Thursday’s report. Representation in state legislatures hit an all-time high of 226 this year, an increase of 18 percent over 2022.

Still, several states are lacking in adequate representation, and four states — Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi and West Virginia — have no LGBTQ people serving in the legislature.

Annise Parker, the president and chief executive of the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute, on Thursday said electing more LGBTQ people to public office is the community’s best defense against rampant anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and a recent tidal wave of legislation that threatens to substantially roll back the rights of LGBTQ people in the U.S.

“LGBTQ+ leaders are our best firewall against the homophobia and transphobia sweeping our communities,” Parker, a former mayor of Houston and the first openly LGBTQ person elected to lead a major city, said.

“As LGBTQ+ elected officials stand up and speak out on behalf of all of us, they are also inspiring countless LGBTQ+ leaders to consider running for office themselves,” Parker said. “This is an all-hands-on-deck moment for the LGBTQ+ community and our allies: We must double down on our efforts to inspire, train and support future LGBTQ+ candidates — our rights will depend on it.”

At least 491 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced this year in state legislatures nationwide, and a record-shattering 63 have become law, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. A recent analysis of proposed state-level legislation by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest LGBTQ civil rights group, found that roughly half of anti-LGBTQ bills filed this year explicitly targeted the transgender community.

Earlier this week, for the first time in its 40-year history, HRC declared a national state of emergency for LGBTQ people, citing the passage of recent laws.