HEAR ME OUT MY LGBTQ POV | SPONSORED BY UW CREDIT UNION
LGBTQ VOTES WERE CRUCIAL IN
The 2020 Election BY PAUL MASTERSON
I
t goes without saying that no one played Frank Sinatra’s “It Was a Very Good Year” on This Is It’s jukebox this past New Year’s Eve. In these times of social strife, economic woes and a deadly pandemic, even the most ironically inclined would not have dared venture there. On top of everything else, regime assaults on LGBTQ rights made life exasperating. Even in defeat, they continued. A month after the election, the U.S. Department of Labor moved to allow federal contractors to discriminate against LGBTQs. Michigan followed suit, ruling that the state’s anti-discrimination law doesn’t protect gays. But let’s not dwell… For all the negatives the year brought, there were positive developments as well. The parental gay penguins made headlines. A LGBTQ marching band appeared for the first time in the Macy’s Thanksgiv-
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ing Day Parade. And, among the various government positions to be filled under President-elect Joe Biden, a gay guy will become the White House Social Secretary, and Mayor Pete Buttigieg was picked for transportation secretary.
81% OF LGBTQ AMERICANS VOTED FOR THE BIDENHARRIS TICKET, WHICH HELPED TIP THE SCALES TO WIN THE ELECTION FOR THE DEMOCRATS. The year 2020 was, above all, a political one for LGBTQs. Nationally, 81% voted for the Biden-Harris ticket, adding a significant tally to the vote. Especially in swing states, their ballots helped tip the scales to win the election for the Democrats.
Of the hundreds of LGBTQ candidates who ran for office, more than 40% were successful. In Milwaukee, an equivalent number, three of seven, won their respective races. Brett Blomme was elected to a seat on the Milwaukee County Court, Issy Ramón took the office of County Registrar of Deeds, and the city’s 8th District voters chose JoCasta Zamarripa as their alderperson. Jessica Paige Katzenmeyer, the second transwoman in Wisconsin to seek a State Assembly office, made her inaugural run for political office against a long-term incumbent. Although unsuccessful, she garnered an impressive 45% of the vote. While the pandemic cancelled PrideFest and the Pride Parade, as well as other LGBTQ events, the void gave rise to Black LGBTQ activists Broderick “Montell Ross” Pearson (organizer of the March with Pride for Black Lives Matter), as well as Solana
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