LPAC Featured in Them
LPAC was recently featured in an article, “America Has Never Had a Lesbian Governor Before. Soon, It Could Have Two” by Nico Lang published by Them.
From the piece:
As the LGBTQ+ community seeks to expand representation across the queer alphabet, advocacy groups believe that progress is coming, and that it’s coming fast. According to the political action group LGBTQ Victory Fund, a record 101 LGBTQ+ candidates are seeking seats in Congress this year, a 16% increase over the 2020 election cycle. Lisa Turner, executive director of the LGBTQ+ political action group LPAC, says her organization has already endorsed more candidates during this point in the 2022 election cycle than any year in history. So far the group has offered its endorsement to a record 91 women — up 7% from the previous high of 85 in 2020. Turner projects that LPAC will back 150 candidates by November.
The rise in queer candidates may be at least partly attributable to an onslaught of state-level anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. State legislatures across the country introduced an unprecedented slate of anti-LGBTQ+ bills in 2022, the majority of which target the ability of trans youth to play sports and access gender-affirming medical care.
Yes, there have been federal losses as well, including the overturning of Roe v. Wade, a ruling that LGBTQ+ advocates fear could jeopardize major legal victories, but Healey and other candidates running at the state level hope that their candidacies prove that queer people can make a difference in state and local government. In the wake of her 2015 win, her role as both a politician and a role model became synthesized. “I had so many people from the community — and also parents — come up to me and talk about what it meant that they could see somebody in government who looks like them,” Healey tells Them. “When people said, ‘Now I think more is possible for me or for my child,’ those comments really drove home the importance of representation.”
Read the full story in Them here.
Original Story by Nico Lang in Them,
July 14, 2022