US mid-term elections 2022: In a first, LGBTQ candidates to contest from all 50 states – WION
The upcoming American midterm elections are creating history; the good kind. For the first time, the elections have LGBTQ candidates running in all 50 US states and the capital Washington.
As per AFP, the monumental milestone comes as the LGBTQ community has become an increasingly significant voting constituency. Analysts predict that the surge in transgender and gay voters might redraw the electoral landscape over the next generation, “nudging the conservative US heartland in a more liberal direction.”
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Currently, the community represents around 10 per cent of American voters, however, as per an October report by a lobby group in collaboration with Bowling Green State University, Ohio, the number will by the end of this decade rise to one in seven or 14-plus per cent.
“Bigots want us to stay home and stay quiet, but their attacks are backfiring and instead have motivated a new wave of LGBTQ leaders to run for office,” says Annise Parker, head of the LGBTQ Victory Fund and former Houston mayor.
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Parker’s organisation in a recent report found that since 2020 there has been an 18 per cent increase in LGBTQ hopefuls who successfully made it onto ballots.
For the November midterms, 1,065 hopefuls ran primary campaigns and a historic 678 successfully made it onto ballots. AFP reports that almost 90 per cent of the LGBTQ candidates who entered this year’s primary races belong to the Democrat party.
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Another significant first for the community is Vermont House candidate Becca Balint who would be the only lesbian ever sent by the state to Congress.
Human Rights Campaign (HRC), which is the United States’ largest gay rights group pointed out that the candidate statistics stand for significant progress in 2022, a year that saw more than 340 anti-LGBTQ bill proposals across the country. These bills include the controversial ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bills and the ones seeking to ban transgender children from participating in school sports.
(With inputs from agencies)
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