By Brooke Sopelsa, Joe Kottke, Matt Lavietes, Jo Yurcaba, Isabela Espadas Barros Leal
June 3, 2024
The U.S. elected its first openly gay public official in 1974 when Kathy Kozachenko, then a student at the University of Michigan, won a seat on the Ann Arbor City Council.
Now, a half-century later, more than a thousand lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people have become elected officials and government leaders, and there have been at least seven out LGBTQ heads of state globally.
The importance of LGBTQ representation in government can be summed up in this adage: “If you don’t have a seat at the table, you’re probably on the menu.”
