With so much hanging in the balance for LGBTQ+ people in the 2022 Midterm Elections, there were quite a few historic, decisive wins for our community here in New England as the votes came in last night.
Rhode Island Congressman David Cicilline, chair of the Congressional LGBT Caucus, will return to DC, and the city of Providence will have its first openly LGBTQ Mayor as Brett Smiley won in an uncontested race. In New Hampshire, Congressman Chris Pappas was declared the winner for his third term. In Vermont, over 60 percent of voters are sending their state’s first woman and first LGBTQ person to Congress — congratulations Becca Balint! In Connecticut, Erick Russell appears to be heading toward becoming the state’s first gay Black treasurer, and in Maine, incumbent Gov. Janet Mills prevailed over a former governor with an alarmingly homophobic record, Paul LePage. These are just some of the highlights, with more wins coming in up and down the ballot.
Of course no win is more historic than Massachusetts’ Attorney General Maura Healey, who will be the Bay State’s first elected woman and openly LGBTQ governor — and the first lesbian governor in the United States.
“Tonight I want to say something to every little girl and every young LGBTQ person out there,” Healey said in her acceptance speech, reports The Boston Globe. “I hope tonight shows you that you can be whatever — whoever — you want to be.”
Reports the Globe:
Maura Healey, a former civil rights attorney and professional basketball player who vaulted to the national stage by suing Donald Trump and corporate giants, decisively won the race for Massachusetts governor on Tuesday, seizing the office back for Democrats on a historic night that saw women forcefully overcome a centuries-long tradition of white male political dominance.
The Democratic attorney general defeated Republican opponent Geoff Diehl to become the first woman and first openly LGBTQ person elected Massachusetts governor, and one of very few openly LGBTQ governors nationwide. Healey, 51, led an almost entirely female slate of Democrats that swept the state’s constitutional offices, firmly stomping down a wall that has taken decades to erode.
Read the complete Boston Globe story here. And look for more election results here at bostonspiritmagazine.com.
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