Despite surveys consistently showing bisexual people outnumbering gay and lesbian people in the general population, bisexual people were severely underrepresented among LGBTQ+ elected officials and few bisexual people had ever held high-level office. Kate Brown was going to help change the latter. 

She had a long history of shattering lavender ceilings. Appointed to fill a vacancy in the Oregon House of Representatives in 1991, she went from the House to the state Senate in 1996. In 2004, she became the first woman elected to serve as Senate majority leader. In 2008, she was elected Oregon’s secretary of state, becoming the first out bisexual elected statewide official in the United States. 

While serving, she was elevated to governor in 2015, after her predecessor was forced to resign. She became the second out LGBTQ+ person to serve as governor – the first being former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey, who came out in 2004 while in office and resigned a few months later.

Running in her first election for governor in 2016, Brown revealed the fear she felt as a new lawyer at the prospect of losing her job in the 1980s because she was dating a woman. Since then, she has worked hard to secure LGBTQ+ rights, including signing a bill banning so-called “conversion therapy” on minors.

“There are many things that young people need, but breaking them down based on their sexual or gender identity is not one of them—and in fact, it’s inexcusable,” Brown said during the emotional signing ceremony, The Advocate reported May 22, 2015. “Our young people deserve acceptance, support, and love. To the young people who question their identities, suffer from bullying, or struggle with what it means to come out, today is your day . . . Your voices have been heard.”

On November 8, 2016, Brown won her election with 51 percent of the vote, making history as the first out LGBTQ+ person ever elected governor in the United States. After completing the rest of her predecessor’s term, she ran for reelection in 2018, beating her Republican opponent by more than six points. 

Five groundbreaking LGBTQ+ candidates of color won election to state legislatures in 2016, beginning an upward trend in the number of LGBTQ+ state legislative candidates of color who would run for office. 

Park Cannon and Sam Park elected to the Georgia House

In a special election for the Georgia state House, voters elected 24-year-old Park Cannon to replace Simone Bell, who was the first Black out lesbian elected to a state legislature. Cannon became the first person elected to Georgia’s House who identified as queer. Then in November, Sam Park unseated an entrenched anti-LGBTQ+ representative to become the first gay man and first Asian American elected to the Georgia state House. (Former State Rep. Rashad Taylor had come out in 2011 while in office). 

Carlos Guillermo Smith Wins Florida House Seat

Carlos Guillermo Smith won his election to the Florida state House less than five months after 49 people were massacred at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, where Smith lived. On that tragic morning on June 12, 2016, Smith – who was then the government affairs manager at Equality Florida – recalled waking up and making panicked phone calls to ensure friends and loved ones were safe. In the days that followed, he became one of the most outspoken local voices demanding tolerance and acceptance for people of color, LGBTQ+ people and the Muslim community.

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Two months after the shooting, he overwhelmingly won his primary and was unopposed in the general election, becoming Florida’s first out LGBTQ+ Latinx state lawmaker.

Leslie Herod Emerges Victorious in Colorado House Race

Also on that night in November 2016, Leslie Herod became the first Black out LGBTQ+ person elected to the Colorado state legislature. An alumna of LGBTQ+ Victory Institute’s Candidate & Campaign Training, she spent years in the state capitol working for high-level elected leaders with a focus on building bridges across the political spectrum. Those skills came in use shortly after the 2016 election when the vehicle of a transgender woman in her district was vandalized with vicious anti-trans and pro–Donald Trump messages. Although not yet in office, Herod quickly organized a town hall on “ensuring civil rights for all” to calm fears and start dialogue. She quickly became among the most influential representatives on civil rights issues, including police and criminal justice reform as well as LGBTQ+ equality. Known as one of Colorado’s most prolific and successful lawmakers, Herod was elected chair of the powerful appropriations committee in 2021. 

Eric Fanning describes his historic Senate confirmation to be Secretary of the Army as “bizarre.” Eminently qualified—a foreign policy and national security expert who had been confirmed as undersecretary of the Air Force in 2013—Fanning’s confirmation was put on hold for eight months while Kansas Republican Senator Pat Roberts tried to leverage the Obama administration on an entirely different issue.

Ironically, Fanning’s strongest champion was Arizona Republican Senator John McCain, who just five years earlier had been one of the strongest opponents of repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT),” the policy that allowed military service for lesbians and gays, but only if their sexual orientation was not revealed. 

Fanning was in the Pentagon at the time, working for Secretary of Defense Les Aspen. He was fresh out of Dartmouth College when he started working for Aspen, then the Wisconsin representative who chaired the House Armed Services Committee.

“There were no openly gay people — I wasn’t even out yet — that were part of the conversation” about DADT, he says. “It impressed upon me, in a very stark way, the importance of having a voice at the table.”

Fanning became involved in Victory Fund shortly after it was formed—joining the board during the Bush administration and becoming vice-chair before leaving for a federal government position. “The first thing that struck me about the Victory Fund is it has such a focused mission,” Fanning says, which was “particularly important because I had seen first-hand how that makes a difference.”

Later he became involved with Victory Institute as well. “I am a product of the [Presidential] Appointments Project,” Fanning says of the Victory Institute initiative and his confirmation. “Putting me on the list brought my name to the attention of people who didn’t know I was gay,” but knew him from different capacities.

Fanning was finally confirmed by McCain and Roberts on May 17, 2016. “Two Republicans extolling my qualifications!” Fanning says. “It was just a bizarre thing to watch. But that was the silver lining of having that hold. It got attention, members started talking about it—and it was bizarre. But it was certainly a nice feeling” getting confirmed.

With his confirmation, Fanning became one of the highest-ranking openly LGBT officials in U.S. history and the first out person to head any branch of the military. He would serve until the end of the Obama administration. 

On June 24, 2016 – 47 years after the Stonewall Rebellion helped spark the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement – the Stonewall Inn was designated a U.S. national monument by the National Park Service. It is the first national monument dedicated to a site related to LGBTQ+ history. The designation was especially powerful given the tragic mass shooting at Pulse Nightclub just weeks before, where 49 LGBTQ+ people and allies – the majority people of color – were killed. The Stonewall Rebellion of 1969 is widely seen as a pivotal moment in history, one when LGBTQ+ people began to demand not just social justice, but also political power, and became an influential moment for many who ran in the decades to follow.