Keep an eye on these 5 LGBTQ+ Latinx candidates running for office this year

This summer, the Victory Institute released its “Out for America 2023” report, and one of its key findings was that the U.S. now has more Latinx LGBTQ+ elected officials than ever before.

According to the report, the number of out LGBTQ+ Latinx people in office — including positions on school boards and in city councils, mayors, and members of Congress — has more than tripled since 2017 when the Victory Institute began tracking this data. Last year alone saw an increase of about 27%.

Related:

How Laura M. Esquivel helped defeat the national same-sex marriage ban

“La madre of the Latino LGBT Movement” was no stranger to activism by the time she began lobbying Latino lawmakers on marriage equality.

This year, plenty of queer Latinx candidates are up for election in both red and blue states, including incumbents seeking reelection and first-time candidates. Here are just five of the folks who will be on ballots across the country this November.

Never Miss a Beat

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.

Daily

Weekly

Good News

Tiffany Cabán

New York, New York – representing District 22 on the New York City Council

This year, the co-chair of the New York City Council’s LGBTQIA+ Caucus is running to retain her seat this year. In her time in office, Cabán has worked to create more affordable housing for New Yorkers and public safety initiatives that invest in community resources rather than police.

In response to a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ hostility, she and LGBTQIA+ Caucus co-chair Crystal Hudson co-authored the Marsha & Sylvia Plan, an ambitious agenda named in honor of Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Riviera, which aims to combat injustices faced by the city’s LGBTQ+ community.

As the Victory Fund notes, she also helped pass legislation preventing the city from cooperating with other jurisdictions’ efforts to punish people for obtaining lawful abortions in NYC. And she aims to do the same for gender-affirming care, as she told CBS’s The Point earlier this year.

“We also want to be a safe haven so that folks who can’t get care elsewhere can come here and know that they’re going to get that life-saving care that they absolutely need and quite frankly is a human right,” she said.

Eliazar Posada

Carrboro, North Carolina – Carrboro Town Council

Posada became North Carolina’s first openly LGBTQ+ Latino elected official last year when he won a special election for a seat on the Carrboro Town Council. Now he’s running to retain that seat.

This year, he’s worked with Equality NC to fight a slate of anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced in the North Carolina General Assembly that focused on restricting young trans people’s rights.

As he told radio station 97.9 this spring, he’s been working hard to change hearts and minds. “We talk to folks. We’ve been bringing people from across the state to the General Assembly to talk about their issues,” he said. “But we’ve also been holding community briefings, partner briefings, having conversations with the community at all levels about what these bills are.”

Maydeé Morales

Worcester, Massachusetts – Worcester City Council, At-Large

With 30 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, Morales has made affordable housing and food security centerpieces of her campaign. Most recently, she assisted low-income individuals to transition to sustainable employment as the director of the Resiliency Center at Worcester Community Action Council.

“I want to amplify the voices of those I’ve served,” she said at an August candidate forum. “I have sat across the table from the people for whom the system has not worked.”

She has also advocated for a moratorium on clearing homeless encampments in the city, arguing instead for the creation of an expert group to tackle the problem.

“I know how difficult it is for folks who are homeless to have the little bit of things that they have. And when they lose that, then that creates yet another barrier for them to be able to get into housing, into a job,” she told Talk of the Commonwealth host Hank Stolz in June. “Continuing to remove folks from the spaces that they are in without a solution does not work. We need some solutions.”

Mario Castillo

Houston, Texas – Houston City Council, representing District H

If elected in November, Castillo promises to bring “critical LGBTQ and Latino representation to city council.”

That’s especially important right now since, according to a February report in Houston Public Media, the city could become the largest in the U.S. without any LGBTQ+ representation in its government when out city council member Robert Gallegos’s term ends in January.

“As we are under attack from the state with anti-LGBTQ legislation, it’s so critical that we have voices representing our community in local government,” Castillo said in a Pride Month message in June. Among his campaign promises: getting an equal rights ordinance passed to protect the city’s LGBTQ+ community from discrimination.

Sasha Ritzie-Hernandez

Oakland, California – Oakland School Board , District 5

If elected, Ritzie-Hernandez will be the first out LGBTQ+ person ever to serve on the Oakland School Board. That representation matters more now than ever as local school boards have become a focus of far-right groups and conservative parents seeking to push their anti-LGBTQ+ agendas.

Among her listed priorities are accountability, engaging the community, providing resources and fair pay to educators, and improving multicultural competency in district schools.

At a time when conservatives are also aiming to radically distort the way issues of race and racism in the U.S. are taught in schools, Ritzie-Hernandez promises to ensure that Oakland students learn about the city’s multicultural history, including the Black Panther Party, Japanese-American civil rights activist Fred Korematsu, and the ethnic Guerrerenses and Oaxaqueños communities of Mexico’s Costa Chica region.

As she notes on her campaign website, “It is time we take action by way of policy implementation so that all students have access to quality education that affirms their identity.”