Elections Matter: How This Last Set of Midterm Elections Presents LGBTQIA2S+ People a Place at the Table of our National Life

I am sitting in the city of Tigard, in the state of Oregon, in which I am celebrating the fact that Oregonians voted for Tina Kotek, and out-lesbian candidate for Governor. She wasn't the only out-lesbian Governor voted into office in last week's election: Maura Healey of Massachusetts. They join Governor Jared Polis of Colorado as out-LGBTQIA2S+ Governors. This country has never had so many out LGBTQIA2S+ Governors in its history.

Furthermore, on Friday, Nov. 11, 2022, PBS Newshour reported that over 430 LGBTQIA2S+ candidates had been to various elected offices in the US during the recent Nov. 8, 2022 election. There are federal Representatives/members of Congress, along with state elected representatives and senators who were elected into office.

But the good news continue: Nevada is set to pass a bill (Question One) in the recent election that protects LGBTQIA2S+ people in the state constitution, an Equal Rights Amendment, that protects people based on race as well as women, etc. In Nevada's Equal Right Amendment (ERA), equal rights would be guaranteed for all, regardless of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability or ancestry. At the time of this writing, it was on its way to passage. 

And the ripple effect of this recent election was revealed today when Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Majority Leader in the US Senate, said that next week the US Senate will vote on codifying same-sex marriage. In recent months, Assoc. Justice Clarence Thomas suggested that with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court of the US (SCOTUS) would also re-consider other decisions which set precedent as Roe v. Wade did, such as contraception and same-sex marriage. The House of Representatives has already passed a bill, codifying same sex marriage as the law of the land. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (WI), an out-lesbian US Sen., was the primary mover behind the passage of the bill in the US Senate, in which, after both branches of the legislative branch passed it, the bill would go to the President to be signed into law. They will need to get 10 Republican Senators to sign off on this bill, assuming that all Democrats will support the bill.

In the history of the Church, we who are Christians have a duty to be sure that the government, which passes laws to protect the citizenry, does not pass laws that hurt people or cause oppression, following the example of the life which we should live, protecting the common good of all, per Jesus' example of life. After all, we are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

It looks like the US is resembling more and more the diversity of people in this country in this last election cycle. May the trend continue.

May it be so.




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