Joining
the ranks of still-red states with bright blue dots in them, Georgia
made history this week when voters elected Simone Bell to represent a
state legislative district.
Bell, a lifelong community
educator and organizer, is actually the first African American, male
or female, to win state office after running as an openly gay
candidate. Jason Bartlett of Connecticut became the first openly gay
African American state legislator in early 2008 by coming out
publicly once in office.
“While it’s humbling to think
that I’ve made history just by being myself, my campaign was always
about serving the people of Georgia’s 58th District,” Bell said.
“We came in really late in a five-way special election for an
open seat, so I just hunkered down and made sure we talked to as many
voters as humanly possible. And then a couple of weeks into the
campaign, someone mentioned to me that we might make history along
the way.”
A collection of intown neighborhoods whose
residents are young, old, black, white, gay and straight, Georgia’s
District 58 sits just southeast of the heart of Atlanta and has a
history of progressive politics mixed with some urban growing pains.
When Bell first moved there 10 years ago, she heard that a local
pastor was preaching against the newer residents in her neighborhood,
so she organized teas with longtime residents who said their only
concern was whether their new neighbors would take care of their
houses. The pastor left the neighborhood shortly afterward.
Prior
to running for the Georgia legislature, Bell was the southeast
regional community educator for Lambda Legal, a national organization
that fights for the legal rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender people. In that role she traveled a mostly rural
10-state region, organizing local communities around issues such as
safe schools, partner visitation rights and transgender rights.
In
other news for gay African American politicians this year, Charles
Pugh became Detroit’s first openly gay city councilmember after
finishing first among 18 candidates for 9 at-large seats in the
November elections. Placing first also meant Pugh became city
council president. –lance helms
