Happy Black History Month! This month, we’ll be highlighting the phenomenal Black out LGBTQ leaders who paved the way for many. But there’s still so much history to make. Today, there are over 120 out LGBTQ Black elected officials in the entire country. Black LGBTQ people continue to feel the consequences of this underrepresentation in policies and legislation that target our communities.
But we are working to ensure Black LGBTQ leaders have the resources and support to win. In 2022, a group of LGBTQ Victory Fund supporters formed the Black Leaders Caucus to address representation disparities by identifying, recruiting, endorsing and supporting Victory Fund’s Black LGBTQ candidates.
It wasn’t until 2020 that America elected the first Black out LGBTQ person (Mondaire Jones) and the first Afro-Latinx person (Ritchie Torres) to the U.S. Congress. It wasn’t until 2017 that we elected the first out Black trans woman to a city council (Andrea Jenkins in Minneapolis). Black trans people are still woefully represented at all levels of government. America has yet to elect an LGBTQ Black governor or U.S. Senator.
Clearly, there’s a long way to go. There’s so much more work to do and more out Black leaders to support. Through programs like our Black Leaders Caucus, Victory Fund is committed to ensuring that Black LGBTQ voices have an equal seat at the tables of power.
Join us in this essential fight – donate to the Black Leaders Caucus Fund today!
