Hollywood Celebrates Major Representation Milestones In 2020 Election

Dino-Ray Ramos
·4 min read

As the country awaits the final results of the presidential election, there were major strides when it came to the representation of people of color and the LGBTQ community on many fronts — many film and TV figures from Hollywood celebrated as the world saw progress in the House and Senate.

“The Squad” which includes Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts won re-election to Congress and they have added more powerful voices to their crew including Cori Bush who was the first Black Congresswoman in the history of Missouri. Director Victoria Mahoney and RuPaul’s Drag Race season 12 winner Jaida Essence Hall were one of the many that sent their congratulations to Bush.

In addition to Bush, antiestablishment liberal and former school principal Jamaal Bowman defeated Conservative Party candidate Patrick McManus to take a seat in Congress.

The LGBTQ community saw huge advancement all over the country. Sarah McBride became the first openly trans person to be elected to a state senate seat.

Gabrielle Union took to Twitter and gave her a shout out as her “woman crush Wednesday”.

“Today’s #wcw is making history as the nation’s first-ever transgender state senator,” said Union. “Big congrats to Sarah McBride! Her overwhelming win was also historic as it made her Delaware’s first out LGBTQ person elected to the state’s legislature.”

Taylor Small became the first out trans person to be elected to the Vermont state legislature while Stephanie Byers was elected to the Kansas State House of Representatives, making her the first out trans person of color ever to be elected to a state legislature in the U.S.

Ritchie Torres won a seat in the U.S. House to New York’s 14th Congressional District, becoming the first openly gay LGBTQ Afro-Latinx member of Congress. Mondaire Jones also made history as one of the first Black LGBTQ+ members of Congress to win his election. Pose co-creator Steven Canals and Star Trek: Discovery star Wilson Cruz took to Twitter to congratulate Torres and celebrate these historic moments.

On top of that, Jabari Brisport became the first Black LGBTQ member of the New York State legislature and Torrey Harris & Eddie Mannis became the first LGBTQ legislators elected to the Tennessee House.

Other first include Michele Reyner as the first Black LGBTQ woman elected to the Florida legislature; Kim Jackson as the first LGBTQ Georgia State Senator; and Oklahoma’s Mauree Turner as the first nonbinary and Muslim to serve in the state’s legislature. This “rainbow wave” adds to the re-election to other members of the LGBTQ community including Sharice Davids (House of Representatives for Kansas), Brianna Titone (Colorado’s State House of Representative), Ryan Fecetau (Maine House of Representatives), Carlos Smith (Florida House of Representative), Scott Wiener (California State Senate) and Sam Park (Georgia’s House of Representatives)

Read some of the congratulatory tweets below.

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