Ann Arbor is a landmark in many ways. It is the home of the University of Michigan and attracts over six million visitors each year with events such as football games at the Big House and the Ann Arbor Art Fair. Beyond being a major academic and cultural hub, Ann Arbor has carved its own place in LGBTQ+ history in the United States.
50 years ago, U-M alum Kathy Kozachenko ran for and was successfully elected to public office in Ann Arbor City Council as the first openly Queer person elected to political office in U.S. history. A year prior, in 1973, then-City Councilmembers Jerry DeGrieck and Nancy Wechsler were the first public officials to come out as Queer while holding office.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Travis Radina, Ann Arbor City Councilmember, D-Ward 3, said he felt proud of the growing recognition of Ann Arbor’s place in LGBTQ+ history.
“Up until recently, I think if you would have asked most people who the first openly gay person was elected to office, they would have told you Harvey Milk,” Radina said. “Kozachenko was not a household name. I still don’t think she is, but I think that’s changing, and anything that we can continue to do here in Ann Arbor to uplift her story of Nancy and Jerry and their contributions to LGBTQ history is critically important.”
Radina said Ann Arbor is continuing to make history regarding the LGBTQ+ community by commissioning a statue in honor of Kozachenko, which will be unveiled later this year as a part of the city’s bicentennial celebration.
“I was really proud to work with the mayor earlier this year, and as part of our bicentennial year, we have commissioned a statue of Kathy Kozachenko for City Hall so that we can celebrate her history,” Radina said. “We have commissioned a state historical marker, (and) it will be the first state historical marker in Michigan’s history that celebrates LGBTQ history.”
LGBTQ+ visibility in the political sphere has grown in the U.S. since Kozachenko’s historic election. In 2023, 1,174 openly LGBTQ+ people held office in the country, a 68% increase from 698 elected officials in 2019. Currently, Michigan has 53 LGBTQ+ government officials serving in office including Radina, Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) and state Rep. Jason Morgan, D-Ann Arbor.
Washtenaw County Commissioner Katie Scott, D-District 9, who identifies as a lesbian, told The Daily in an interview she did not think her identity would be an issue for Ann Arbor voters when she ran for her office in 2018 because of the city’s long-standing history with the LGBTQ+ community.
“I wanted to make sure people knew that part of my identity because I think it is important, but it wasn’t ever going to be something that was counted against me by the majority,” Scott said. “I’m sure there are still people with those individual prejudices out there. But I feel like because we have that history here, it was not something I felt like was going to prejudice people against me.”
Despite her office not being directly involved in policymaking, Scott said she advocated for and worked toward implementing the Gender Affirming Documents and Forms Policy in 2022, which required county documents asking for gender to include options for transgender and nonbinary people.
“That is something that I felt like I wanted to do because I didn’t want people who were coming to the county for help or to get information to feel like they were alienated by a form,” Scott said. “So it was like one small thing I could do, and I’m always trying to think about other things I can do to make it so people don’t feel apart.”
Despite the increase in LGBTQ+ representation in public office and an expansion of LGBTQ+ rights and protections throughout the last five decades, legislation like the “Don’t Say Gay” 2022 bill in Florida and state-wide restrictions against gender-affirming healthcare continue to make their way throughout the U.S.
Public Policy graduate student John Blake, who identifies as Queer, is the executive director of Out in Public, a U-M student organization that focuses on providing a space for Public Policy students and faculty to discuss issues impacting the LGBTQ+ community. In an interview with The Daily, Blake said he feels it is important to hear from people directly affected by issues such as the rise of anti-transgender legislation.
“As much as I can sympathize with it and push for better policies, there is a line where I cannot fully understand someone else’s lived experience,” Blake said. “And I think having those conversations is always important, especially even for people who are not Queer. Hearing it from a trans or a gender non-conforming person is a lot more impactful than hearing it from just another cis white man.”
Blake also said this translates into a greater need for LGBTQ+ representation in U.S. politics.
“Seeing people who are able to thrive and are able to have some form of power while still having that identity proves that Queer people are real, especially that trans people are real and that trans rights are important and they’re human rights,” Blake said. “Being able to see someone be openly and unabashedly themselves in government shows that we belong and that we are just as much a part of society as any other group.”
As the November general election approaches, LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations like the Human Rights Campaign have stressed the importance of election results, as the repeal of many LGBTQ+ rights has been promised under a second term of former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.
Scott said she is greatly concerned about the results of the presidential election as an LGBTQ+ person and mother, especially with the implications of Project 2025, a series of conservative policy proposals planned to be enacted under Trump if he is reelected.
“I think (with) what I’ve heard about Project 2025 … will people say, ‘We’re going to take kids away from these gay families. They shouldn’t be raising children’?” Scott said. “I’m going to try to make sure I’m fighting against this, and I think there’s people who would think I was crazy for thinking this way, but I don’t think I am.”
Radina said although he does not fully agree with President Joe Biden’s policies, he will work towards advocating for people in Ann Arbor to vote for the Democratic Party in November to ensure that LGBTQ+ and other minority rights are protected.
“(The Biden) administration has been an incredibly pro-LGBTQ+ administration,” Radina said. “I will continue fighting between now and November. I will be doing everything that I can to turn out Ann Arbor and to turn out Michigan and to make sure that our purple state is blue this November.”
Radina said he hopes the greater visibility of LGBTQ+ people in politics and society will help more people relate to and support the community.
“As more LGBTQ+ people have been represented, not just in politics and government, but in entertainment and in all of those things … I think it would be hard for most Americans to be able to say that they don’t personally know someone who is out and LGBTQ,” Radina said. “Knowing someone and knowing their story is really critical to changing hearts and minds.”
Summer Managing News Editor Eilene Koo can be reached at ekoo@umich.edu.
The post ‘We belong’: 50+ years of LGBTQ+ political representation in Ann Arbor and the U.S. appeared first on The Michigan Daily.
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