More LGBTQ people are running for office than ever before!
The LGBTQ Victory Fund, an LGBTQ rights group that supports LGBTQ politicians and political candidates, recently released a study on the LGBTQ candidate demographics for 2020.
“LGBTQ Victory Fund is pleased to present you with our inaugural Out on the Trail report – which analyzes the diversity of the openly LGBTQ candidates who ran for office in 2020,” wrote Mayor Annise Park, the President and CEO of the Victory Fund. “More than 1,000 LGBTQ people ran this election cycle – the most in U.S. history – and we expect an unprecedented number to win on Election Day. This report will show that LGBTQ candidates are significantly more diverse than the overall candidate population, but that we have work to do to ensure LGBTQ candidates are as diverse as America. I hope you enjoy exploring the LGBTQ people who stepped up to run in 2020.”
As Mayor Park noted, this year’s elections saw a spike in LGBTQ candidates. At least 1,006 openly LGBTQ people ran or are running for office in 2020. As for this November’s general election, at least 574 LGBTQ candidates will be running. This is the largest number of openly LGBTQ candidates in U.S. history and a 33 percent increase since 2018.
Even better, the racial diversity among LGBTQ candidates has increased. 31 percent of LGBTQ candidates running in 2020 are people of color. Though, there is still more work necessary when it comes to gender equality in politics. While the numbers for LGBTQ men of color running in 2020 are roughly proportional to men of color in the overall U.S. population, LGBTQ women of color running for office are at half the proportion within the U.S. population. Meanwhile, the proportion of lesbian candidates dropped between 2018 to 2020.
It’s also important to state that the Victory Fund noted, “Of the 1006 LGBTQ candidates identified in 2020, Victory Fund was able to determine the exact sexual orientation for 764 and the gender identity of 782. Of the 716 LGBTQ candidates identified in 2018 and 401 in 2019, Victory Fund was able to determine the sexual orientation demographics for 602 and 351, respectively, and the gender identity and expression demographics for 637 and 359, respectively.”
Source: The LGBTQ Victory Fund
