The Mad Professah Lectures

The 113th Congress of the United States will have a record seven people who are either lesbian, gay or bisexual. In the U.S. House there will be four newly elected Members who are LGB: Sean Patrick Maloney (NY-18), Kyrsten Sinema )AZ-09), Mark Pocan (WI-05) and Mark Takano CA-41). In addition, there are 2 LGB incumbents who will be returning to the U.S. House: Jared Polis (CO-02) and David Cicilline (RI-01).

And in a dramatic first, lesbian Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (WI-05) gave up her congressional seat and ran (against former governor and Bush cabinet member Tommy Thompson) for the open U.S. Senate seat to represent Wisconsin. She not only became the first openly LGB person to be elected to the U.S. Senate but the 5th Congressional District of Wisconsin became the first congressional district in the United States to be represented by two different openly gay U.S. representatives (Baldwin and Pocan).

Two other important historic firsts will be achieved on January 3rd, 2013 when the new Congress is sworn in. Takano will be the first-ever openly LGBT person of color congressmember and Sinema will be the first-ever openly bisexual member of Congress, one of the youngest, at age 36, and one of the few who claims to be religiously unaffiliated.

The 6 openly LGB members of the U.S. House make up 1.4% of the 435-member body, which is still an under-representation of the 3.4% of Americans who are willing to tell a pollster that they are LGB or the 9% of Americans who are estimated to be LGB.

Baldwin will be 1 of 100 United States Senators, but in a body which allows a single member great latitude to wield disproportional power over federal legislation and public policy.

The Victory Fund has put out a list of "12 races to watch" out of the 120 candidates that they have endorsed in state, local and federal elections throughout the country.

• Tammy Baldwin – U.S. Senate (Wisconsin) – Would be the first openly LGBT American in the U.S. Senate.
• Josh Boschee – North Dakota House of Representatives – Could become the first out member of the N.D. legislature.
• Kate Brown – Oregon Secretary of State – Second highest-ranking elected official in the state.
• David Cicilline – U.S. House (RI1) – Running for his first reelection to Congress in a tight race.
• Sean Patrick Maloney – U.S. House (NY18) – Would be the first openly LGBT member of Congress from N.Y.
• Marie Mayor – Delaware House – Could become the first out state legislator in Delaware.
• Tim Brown – Ohio House of Representatives – Tim would become the only openly LGBT Republican state lawmaker in the U.S.
• Kyrsten Sinema – U.S. House (AZ9) – Would become the first out bisexual elected to Congress.
• Stephen Skinner – West Virginia House of Representatives  – Could become the first openly LGBT state lawmaker in W.V.
• Andy Staton – Delaware Senate – Could become the first out state legislator in Delaware.
• Mark Takano – U.S. House (CA41) – Could become the first openly LGBT person of color in Congress.
• Richard Tisei – U.S. House (MA6) – Would become the first out Republican elected to Congress as a non-incumbent.

Openly gay Congressman David Cicilline running for re-election for the first time easily survived a primary challenge from fellow Democrat Anthony Gemma which many people had expected the former openly gay mayor of  Providence, Rhode Island to lose. Cicilline received over 62% of the vote compared to 30% for the challenger.

Cicilline joins a slew of other openly LGBT candidates for Congress who have won party primaries this year: Mark Pocan (Wisconsin), Mark Takano (California), Richard Tisei (Massachusetts), and Krysten Sinema (Arizona). The only other openly LGBT incumbent besides Cicilline running for re-election isJared Polis from Colorado. Tisei is the only openly gay Republican running for Congress, the rest are Democrats. Sinema is the only self-identified bisexual, the others are identify as either gay or lesbian.

Tammy Baldwin is giving up her congressional seat to run for the United States Senate; that seat will likely be held by Mark Pocan.

Mark Pocan turned 48 years old yesterday, the same day he won the Democratic primary in the 2nd Congressional district of Wisconsin last night. Pocan will take the place of Tammy Baldwin who represented the college town of Madison and its environs for 14 years in Congress as the first (and only) openly lesbian member of Congress. Baldwin is giving up her seat to run for open Wisconsin U.S. Senate seat.

Pocan will become only the 8th person in history to serve in Congress as an openly LGBT member of that body when it convenes on January 3, 2013. Other (non-incumbent) openly LGBT candidates hoping to join the U.S. House of Representatives this cycle are Mark Takano (CA-41), Krysten Sinema (AZ-9), Sean Patrick Maloney (NY-18), and Richard Tisei (MA-6). Incumbent U.S. Representatives David Cicilline (RI-1) and Jared Polis (CO-2) are running for re-election. Longtime incumbent Barney Frank (MA-05) is retiring.