“The district has changed a lot in the 12 years he was in office and has become much more diverse,” he said, also citing the emergence of shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race, which have brought drag to mainstream audiences. “It speaks a lot to where we’ve come as a society. We’ve seen so many gains for the LGBTQ+ community.”
The victory puts Morrison on the precipice of making history. Delaware is one of five U.S. states, in addition to Alaska, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee, which has never elected an out LGBTQ+ person to its state legislature. Although Delaware state Sen. Karen Peterson came out as a lesbian during debate on the marriage equality bill in 2013, she was closeted when she won a seat in the legislature 11 years prior. She declined to seek another term after coming out.
Morrison, who would also be the highest-ranking drag performer to ever serve public office in the U.S., could be joined in the Delaware legislature by two other LGBTQ+ people: trans activist Sarah McBride, who defeated her Democratic opponent in State Senate District 1 by 82 points, and social worker Marie Pinkney, who edged out the Senate’s president pro tem in a close race.
All three candidates are extremely likely to win their general election bids in a state where Democrats control the House, Senate, and governor’s mansion, in addition to all major statewide offices. McBride stands to be the state’s first trans lawmaker and Pinkney its first queer woman of color seated in the legislature.
While Morrison is excited for those milestones, he can’t help but think: Why did it take so long?
“We were the first state,” he said of Delaware. “To think that it’s taken 244 years to get an openly LGBTQ+ person in there is really sad. I’m not big on ‘identity politics,’ but we need a seat at the table. Of the four other progressive candidates who won this this past Tuesday, all four are Black Americans. One of them is a Muslim woman. She will be the first Muslim person elected to our state legislature.”
These victories are taking place during what is shaping up to be a make-or-break year for LGBTQ+ politicians. The New York Times coined the term “Rainbow Wave” to describe the record-breaking number of LGBTQ+ candidates who have won election to office since 2017, a roster that included Virginia’s Danica Roem, the first-ever trans state lawmaker, and Colorado’s Jared Polis, the first gay man to serve as governor. This year a record number of queer and trans people are running for office, including U.S. House hopefuls Mondaire Jones and Ritchie Torres.
But this year has also witnessed a historic number of attacks on LGBTQ+ candidates. The president of New York City’s largest police union is currently under investigation for calling Torres, who is poised to be the first gay Afro-Latino representative in Congress, a “first-class whore.” Alex Morse, the openly gay mayor of Holyoke, Massachusetts, was recently defeated in a primary challenge against House lawmaker Richard Neal following a politically motivated smear campaign accusing him of sexual assault.
Meanwhile, the Victory Fund recently called attention to what it claims is the “most homophobic campaign” in U.S. history against Congressional candidate Jon Hoadley. The political action group accused Republican opponent Fred Upton of having “approved of coordinated homophobic attacks” branding Hoadley as a pedophile and drug abuser, based on 15-year-old blog posts taken out of context.
