Monday, October 8, 2012
The Gaily News: Record number of LGBT candidates running for Congress
Posted by Tiffany Razzano on Mon, Oct 8, 2012 at 11:00 AM
Outside of the presidential race, this election season could see historic wins for the gay community. Eight openly LGBT candidates — a record number — are running for seats in Congress. This includes Wisconsin's Tammy Baldwin, who could become the first openly gay member of the Senate. Those running for the House of Representatives include bisexual Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, California's Mark Takano, and Richard Tisei of Massachusetts — the first openly gay Republican to vie for a House seat.
The best part is that in each of these races, the focus seems to be more about the issues than the candidates' sexual orientations.
Currently, there are four openly gay members of Congress, two of whom — including the long-serving gay advocate Barney Frank — are stepping down.
According to GLAAD, there are more LGBT characters on TV than ever before. For the past 17 years, the advocacy group has tracked regularly appearing characters in scripted programs on network television. The 2012-2013 season, which recently started, is the most inclusive ever, with 31 recurring characters who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. That's 4.4% of all characters on television, up from 2.9% last season.
South Florida's Broward County School District is the sixth largest in the United States and now the first in the nation to recognize LGBT History Month. In September, its school board unanimously voted to officially recognize October as LGBT History Month. There's no set curriculum, but administrators, teachers and staff are encouraged to craft lessons and programs to teach oft-overlooked LGBT history to students, "in any way that is most positive and uplifting to their schools and communities."
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