Eight Victory Fund-endorsed candidates faced the voters yesterday, with seven winning their races.

Dan Manning became the first openly gay candidate elected to the Fond Du Lac City Council in Wisconsin.  Manning, an Army veteran, helped start Knights Out, a group for openly LGBT graduates of the United States Military Academy.  He currently serves on the board of directors for Equality Wisconsin.

Rhonda Lanford (pictured), an out lesbian, was elected to become a judge on the Dane County Circuit Court in Wisconsin.  The experienced lawyer and adjunct law professor beat an incumbent who was appointed by Gov. Scott Walker.

Incumbents coasting to victory Tuesday night included: Alderman Shane Cohn of St. Louis, Mo.; Mayor Jim Ireton of Salisbury, Md.; Alderman Larry Palm of Madison, Wis.; Alderman Teege Metille of Appleton, Wis.; and Tom Peters of the University City, Mo., School Board.

Scott Criqui, who ran for a seat on the Lawrence, Kansas, City Commission, fell short in his effort.

During Women’s History Month, Gay Politics is spotlighting the efforts of women leaders who fight for the rights of LGBT people.  Today we turn our attention to Argentina to recognize a truly outstanding advocate for her country’s LGBT community.

María Rachid has been a steadfast advocate for equal rights in Argentina during a decade-long career that has earned her international recognition.  In December 2010, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner nominated her as Vice President of the National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism, a state agency that protects citizens from institutionalized hatred.  And in July 2011, Rachid was elected to the legislature of the city of Buenos Aires as a member of the Front for Victory coalition.

Rachid was born in Mercedes, a province of Buenos Aires, in November 1974.  She studied law at the University of Belgrano and Western Connecticut State University, and later moved to Buenos Aires where she began her illustrious career as a public servant.  In 1998, Rachid founded La Fulana (“Every Woman”), a community center for lesbian and bisexual women in Buenos Aires.  During her tenure at the organization, she facilitated workshops on self-esteem, homophobia, and health issues such as cancer and HIV/AIDS.  She also designed public campaigns around women’s reproductive rights and contributed to public debates around anti-discrimination policy.

In 2006, Rachid co-founded the Argentine Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Federation, a consortium of nonprofit organizations that advocate for equality for the country’s LGBT community.  As the first President of the Federation, Rachid became the leading national spokesperson for marriage equality with her wildly successful campaign, “Los mismos derechos con los mismos nombres” (“Same Rights, Same Names”).  She also co-authored the legislation that would later become the Equal Marriage Act.  Thanks in no small part to her efforts, Argentina became the first country in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage, and only the tenth to do so worldwide.

Over the past thirteen years, Rachid has organized Argentina’s Gay Pride Parade, an annual event that regularly draws over 100,000 attendees to Buenos Aires.  She also successfully lobbied Argentina’s national congress to adopt May 17th as International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia.  Furthermore, Rachid is an accomplished journalist; she is the founding editor of Revista Fulanas and Periódico Queer, two community newspapers for LGBT audiences with circulation in the tens of thousands.

Rachid’s activism has also extended beyond just the LGBT community.  In 2010, she co-founded La Mesa Nacional por la Igualdad y Contra la Discriminación, a coalition of historically underrepresented populations in Argentina such as indigenous peoples, migrant workers, patients of HIV/AIDS, and people with disabilities, among others.  She continues to serve as the bureau’s Secretary General.

Spanish newspaper El País recently named Rachid one of the 100 most important people from Latin America and, after a unanimous vote, the legislature of Buenos Aires bestowed upon her the honor of “Distinguished Personality“ in the fight for human rights.

Gay Politics celebrates María Rachid and her extraordinary efforts on behalf of Argentina’s LGBT community.

Matthew Aycock is an intern at the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund and Institute.

On Saturday, March 16, indigenous LGBT elected officials and candidates from North and South America provided testimony at a public hearing at the Inter American Commission on Human Rights at the Organization of American States.  Three leaders representing indigenous populations in Bolivia, Mexico and the United States testified at the panel “Situation of the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex Indigenous Persons in the Americas.”

The Victory Institute supported the attendance of three public leaders: Ronald Céspedes, Quechua Nation, a gay City Councillor in Sucre, Bolivia, who is also the founder and director of Bolivia’s largest national LGBT rights organization, Fundación Diversencia; Amaranta Gómez, Zapoteca Nation, a one-time candidate to the Mexican Congress and muxe activist; and Arizona state Sen. Jack Jackson Jr., Navajo Nation.

The hearing (video) detailed the human rights needs of LGBTI indigenous populations across the Americas and made concrete suggestions for how IACHR can begin to address them. It capped the week-long 147^th General Session of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights at the OAS in Washington, D.C., and highlighted the work of the relatively new OAS IACHR Unit on the Rights of LGBTI Persons.

The hearing comes just a few weeks after the Little Traverse Bay Bands of the Odawa Indians in Michigan became the third tribal nation in the U.S. to recognize marriage equality for same-sex couples. U.S. census data estimates that there are 5.6 million American Indians and Alaska Natives in the United States, or about 1.5 percent of the total population.

Victory is proud to support LGBTI public officials around the world, including indigenous LGBTI leaders like Councillor Céspedes, Amaranta Gómez, and Sen. Jackson. Find out more about our international work.

Photo: Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

In celebration of Women’s History Month, Gay Politics honors Elaine Noble, the first openly LGBT candidate elected to a state legislature in the U.S.  Noble won a seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1974, where she served two terms.  Harvey Milk would not win local office in San Francisco for another three years.

Noble described her 1974 campaign as “very ugly.” She faced constant anti-LGBT hostility, including death threats.  During the campaign her car was vandalized, her campaign office windows shattered and her supporters were often victims of serious harassment and intimidation.  At one point, Noble campaigned under the protection of state troopers.  Despite all of this, Noble did not back down and won the election with 59% of the vote.

Prior to the campaign, when Noble and Ann Lewis (Barney Frank’s sister) were forming the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus, it was Lewis who first encouraged Noble to run for office.  At the time Noble did not believe, as an out lesbian, that she could win.  Lewis disagreed and helped her kick-start what would become a historic campaign.

Once in office, the harassment did not stop.  Noble had to deal with human feces left on her desk and obscene profanity from her elected colleagues.  An elderly man once approached her outside the state Capitol and spit on her.  “I walked all the way home, showered and changed my clothes,” Noble told Metro Weekly.

Noble earned the ire not just of anti-gay activists, but also those opposed to desegregating the public schools.  At the height of the controversy in the Boston public school system, Noble pushed for desegregation legislation.  As an educator herself, Noble and her campaign staff stood at the school pick-up and drop-off locations in her district to make sure the law was being enforced.

Noble was the only white Boston-area Delegate that would ride the bus with the school children.  This landed her in hot water not only with conservative Democrats, but also with some in the LGBT community.  A reporter from the only LGBT newspaper in town told her that “you should stick to your own kind or we’re going to get someone else to represent us,” to which she responded, “Well, I believe, [David], I am sticking with my own kind.”

After her second term, Noble was part of the first delegation of LGBT Americans invited to the White House to discuss issues important to the community.   Moving away from politics in 1986, Noble helped to create an LGBT alcohol and drug treatment center in Minneapolis.   More recently, she has become a successful Realtor and health care administrator.

Blake Jelley is an intern at the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund and Institute.

Same-sex couples in Colorado won legal recognition today after a civil unions bill received final approval in the state House.  The legislation, which had previously passed in the Senate, now heads to the governor, who supports it.

Civil unions legislation stalled in the last legislative session, but Democrats took control of the House in 2012 elections and gave the speaker’s gavel to Mark Ferrandino, an openly gay representative from Denver.  The number of openly gay and lesbian lawmakers doubled from four to 8 this year, adding to the inevitability surrounding passage of the bill in this session.

“We are proud that this debate was led by Colorado’s openly LGBT lawmakers and their allies,” said Chuck Wolfe, president and CEO of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund and Institute.  ”Having a place at the table really matters.”

Photo:  AP Photo/Ed Andrieski