LGBTQ representation in government is getting better, and that’s thanks to trailblazers like Tammy Baldwin (D-WI).
In 1998, Baldwin became the first openly lesbian woman elected to Congress. In 2012, she became the first openly LGBTQ person in the Senate.
Baldwin has never hidden her sexual orientation. “I think that that integrity is something that is important to voters,” she has said.
(You might want to know why I use the word openly as a qualifier when I describe Baldwin’s career. There were indubitably LGBTQ people in national politics before Baldwin, but they were in the closet.)