Only 0.1 percent of elected officials are LGBTQ, new report finds

Just before the 2009 Houston mayoral runoff election, 35,000 postcards were sent to houses across the city showing one of the candidates, Annise Parker, being sworn in as city controller next to the woman who is now her wife. The caption asked, “Is this the image Houston wants to portray?”

Houston voters answered “yes” on Election Day, making Parker the first openly gay mayor of a big American city, the most populous in Texas.

While her election surprised many non-Houstonians, Parker remembers being the city’s safe candidate. After all, she had 12 years of experience as a city official and was running against a man who had never held public office.

---snip---

Still, there are only 559 known openly LGBTQ elected officials in the U.S., just 0.1 percent of elected officials nationwide, according to a new Victory Institute report. To achieve proportionate representation, America’s estimated 11 million LGBTQ adults (roughly 4.5 percent of the adult population), would need to hold nearly 23,000 more public offices, a 4,000 percent increase, according to the report.

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/only-0-1-percent-elected-officials-are-lgbtq-new-report-n885871