Tina Kotek was first elected to the Oregon House of Representatives in 2006 and was elected as Speaker of the House in 2013. She was the first out LGTBQ+ woman to lead a state legislature in the United States and is the longest serving House speaker in Oregon history to-date. During her tenure, Kotek has worked to expand and protect health care access, successfully fought to pass marriage equality, and passed a massive investment in pre-K education as speaker. 

In addition to their work in the Oregon state house, she served as the policy director of Children First for Oregon and a policy advisor for the Oregon Food Bank. 

Before running for office, Rep. Michaud started working at a paper mill after high school, where he continued working until his election to Maine’s state legislature, and later, the U.S. Congress. Before Michaud came out, he co-sponsored legislation to enact hate crimes protections, fund HIV/AIDS programs, repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and protect LGBTQ+ Americans from discrimination. He was also a cosponsor of the Respect for Marriage Act that would abolish the Defense of Marriage Act.

As Michaud launched his campaign for governor of Maine in 2013, a whisper campaign began. Michaud addressed the rumors head on in November 2013, coming out in an op-ed titled: “Yes, I am gay. ‘But why should it matter?”. He then embarked on a media campaign allowing him to live out and proud. As Michaud told a LGBTQ+ Victory Fund staffer during a 2014 interview:

“I think the most touching [story after coming out] was when I was talking to a business owner in central Maine. He came up to me and wanted to talk to me when I finished my lunch. When I did, he came over with tears in his eyes. He told me his son came out to him five months ago, and he is only 15 years old. The reason his son came out was because he thought something was wrong with him. When I came out it really made a big difference in that young man’s life.”

While Michaud lost his race for governor, the impact of his courage lived on.

In 2013, the Delaware state Senate was in the midst of an intense legislative debate: should the state become the 11th in the nation to approve marriage equality? One senator stood up to give her answer – a resounding yes – and the reason for her support: she was a lesbian. Drawing on her lived experiences, including her relationship with her longtime partner of 24 years, Peterson announced from the podium, “No one chose to be gay. We are what God made us. We don't need to be fixed. We aren't broken.”

Her announcement was met by applause – and when the bill later passed, Peterson and her partner were the first couple to be married. She was the first out LGBTQ+ person to serve in the Delaware state legislature. Peterson retired from the Delaware Senate in 2017. 

Winning marriage equality in Illinois required more arm-twists and plot twists than a mega-drama soap opera. LGBTQ+ Victory Fund candidate Illinois House Rep. Greg Harris first introduced a civil unions bill in 2007. Harris also first introduced the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Bill on February 22 of the same year. The bill suffered a slew of failures and fierce opposition from the anti-LGBTQ= Illinois Family Institute and the Catholic Conference of Illinois, with Cardinal Francis George of Chicago issuing a letter decrying the bill that was put in every parish bulletin. But Harris also had his own team of adamantly aggressive supporters including President Barack Obama, who was following the drama in his home state.

On November 5, 2013, when it finally passed, Obama tweeted: “This is huge . . . the Illinois House just passed marriage equality.” That was followed by a statement that read, in part: “Michelle and I are overjoyed for all the committed couples in Illinois whose love will now be as legal as ours—and for their friends and family who have long wanted nothing more than to see their loved ones treated fairly and equally under the law.”