A victory in Alabama!

Here in Georgia, we've been celebrating the re-election of our first openly lesbian member of the state legislature, Karla Drenner. And we've been rooting for hopefully our first gay male, Allen Thornell, who is in a runoff.

But a friend of mine in Alabama told me that they have just elected their first openly lesbian member of the state legislature. And get this, she won by only 70 votes! So all votes do count! A lot of people came together to make this happen. It's a victory for the state of Alabama. But it's also a victory for equality.

Congratulations to Patricia Todd and to the LGBT community in the state of Alabama!! And thanks to Joe for pointing this out to me.

ALABAMIANS MAKE HISTORY BY ELECTING PATRICIA TODD, FIRST OPEN LESBIAN TO SERVE IN STATE LEGISLATURE

‘From big cities to small towns, from blue states to red states — equality is winning,’ said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese.

WASHINGTON — The Human Rights Campaign applauded the combined efforts of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, Equality Alabama and hundreds of Alabama Human Rights Campaign members as voters elected Patricia Todd to serve as the state representative in District 54. Todd becomes the state’s first open lesbian to serve in the Alabama state Legislature. Todd won the race by razor-thin margin of 70 votes which underscores that every call, every e-mail and every conversation mattered and made a difference.

“From big cities to small towns, from blue states to red states — equality is winning,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “We were proud to join the efforts of Equality Alabama and the Victory Fund in helping fair-minded voters get out to the ballot box. Representative-Elect Todd was supported by an intense ground effort that involved a broad group of supporters.”

Solmonese continued, “We knew this election would be close and we reached out to our local network of supporters. More than 200 Human Rights Campaign members alone live in the 54th district and HRC staff called every one of them. We also contacted our members in Alabama and urged them to call their friends and families in Birmingham to remind them to vote.”

HRC Regional Field Director Sarah Scanlon traveled to Alabama and joined HRC members in canvassing the area with get-out-the-vote messages. Scanlon spent days leading up to the election in the state organizing and supporting the coalition efforts in Birmingham.

http://www.hrc.org/Template.cfm?Section=Press_Room&CONTENTID=33211&TEMPLATE=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm

P.S. Joe, I'm still rooting for your lady Lucy Baxley to become Alabama's first female governor since Lurleen Wallace in the 1960's.