Rainbow Wave: The LGBTQ Election Winners 🎉

News
Written by Sonny Oram

Amazing news: A historic Number Of LGBTQ Candidates Won Primaries In 2018 Midterms! Over 100! We also won YES on 3 in Massachusetts, to protect transgender accommodations. Check out some of the LGBTQ winners below!

Tammy Baldwin

America’s first and only openly LGBTQ senator reelected

Teri Johnston

First-ever lesbian mayor of Key West

Brian Sims

Out Pennsylvania state legislator reelected

Jared Polis

First openly gay man elected to governor

 
 

Sharice Davids

First ever out lesbian Native America woman on Congress

 
 

Megan Hunt

First openly LGBTQ person, who is bisexual, to win State Legislature in Nebraska

 
 

Betsy Driver

The First Intersex Mayor of a U.S. City

Kate Brown

Openly LGBTQ person reelected to Governor of Oregon by just 7 votes

 
 

JD Ford

Indiana’s First Openly Gay State Lawmaker

Brandon Woodard

Openly gay candidate took a seat in the Kansas House of Representatives

 
 

Susan Ruiz 

Openly gay candidate took a seat in the Kansas House of Representatives

 
 

Gavin Newsom 

Next governor of California

Angie Craig

First openly gay person elected to Congress from Minnesota

 
 

Julie Johnson

Out lesbian Julie Johnson unseated the Republican rep. in Texas House of Representatives

 
 

Chris Pappas

New Hampshire’s first openly gay member of Congress

Gerri Cannon

Out trans woman elected to the New Hampshire House

 
 

Lisa Bunker

Out trans woman elected to the New Hampshire House

 

Malcolm Kenyatta

First LGBTQ black man elected to the Pennsylvania legislature

 

And as a MAJOR bonus…

77-year-old Althea Garrison will become the first openly trans person to be seated on the Boston City Council

 
 

View all the winning LGBTQ candidates on NBCnews.com

This article was updated Nov 8, 2018 at 8:34 PM

Cover photo from: famousdc.com

Share this article



Support us on Patreon!

For 15 years, Qwear has been at the forefront of queer fashion documentation, providing content used in classrooms, academic journals, books, health care centers, and more. We are independently run and rely on support from our readers.

Donate

Sonny Oram

Boston-based multidisciplinary artist Sonny Oram is the founder of Qwear, a leading voice in the queer fashion movement for more than 15 years, and the author of the foreword to Queer and Trans Fashion Brands: Resistance and Revolution in the 21st Century (Bloomsbury Academic, 2025). His work has been featured in HuffPost, BuzzFeed, Design*Sponge, and QTYPE Magazine and he's spoken on panels at MIT, South by Southwest, and Simmons Nursing School.

His earliest published work was created at age ten: a series of collages made from cut-up magazines, accompanied by original text exploring themes of gender, cultural conditioning, predatory advertising, and media objectification. In 2025, images of these collages were published in Queer and Trans Fashion Brands: Resistance and Revolution (Bloomsbury Press) and the Fashion, Style & Popular Culture journal.

Through Qwear, Sonny has launched influential campaigns, including the award-winning #ThisIsWhatAsexualLooksLike with Yasmin Benoit, and continues to create spaces for underrepresented communities across internet and print media. He has also used search engine optimization (SEO) to increase the visibility and diversity of queer representation in online search results, helping terms such as “androgynous style,” “bisexual style,” and “asexual” reflect a broader range of identities and experiences.

https://sonnyoram.com
Previous

Anthony Urbano: From Structural Engineer To Menswear Blogger
Next

The Gayest Looks From SS19