Kentucky Elects First LGBTQ+ member, Keturah Herron
The Kentucky House of Representatives will have its first out LGBTQ+ member following a special election Tuesday. Keturah Herron, who is Black, queer, and genderqueer, was elected to fill the District 42 seat vacated when Rep. Reginald Meeks retired in December, The Courier-Journal of Louisville reports. Herron, like Meeks a Democrat, beat Republican Judy Martin Stallard by 1,959 votes to 119 in the Louisville-based district. She will be sworn in shortly.
Herron was previously a policy strategist with the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky. In that position, she was instrumental in persuading Louisville to ban no-knock warrants after the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor by police in 2020. She also campaigned for a law limiting such warrants across the state, passed by the legislature last year.
Herron will be the only out member of the Kentucky General Assembly. Kentucky has had a gay state senator, Ernesto Scorsone, who came out while in office in 2003. He left the legislature when he was appointed to a judgeship in 2008, and there has been no LGBTQ+ representation in either chamber since then. Herron will also be the third Black woman in the legislature.
Herron was endorsed by the LGBTQ Victory Fund, which works to elect out candidates around the nation. “This is a momentous night for Kentucky, especially for LGBTQ people and Black people who have lived without equitable representation in the state legislature for far too long,” Victory Fund President and CEO Annise Parker said in a Tuesday press release. “Keturah is a seasoned community organizer and policy expert. She has the experience — and political stamina — to advocate for all Kentuckians and stand up against the deluge of anti-LGBTQ legislation perpetrated by anti-equality lawmakers. Her election is a strong rebuke to this hate.”
https://www.advocate.com/politics/2022/2/23/kentucky-elects-first-out-house-member-keturah-herron
Herron, a social justice activist who is Black, queer, and genderqueer, won a special election Tuesday.
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