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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 5, 1999)
tebtuary 5.1999 urmmnews I er suit says Junior League, tai lored and classy. Her words leave no doubt that she is bright yet still accessible in a “just folks” way. Her hair resembles that of a windswept jock. Tammy Baldwin is some pack age. “Never doubt that a small group of thought ful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has,” says Baldwin, quoting the late Margaret Mead. It was the mantra of Baldwins congressional campaign, and Meads words were emblazoned upon the wall of the campaign office so nobody would forget. And no one did, which may be the reason Baldwin, 36, snagged a victory— and a place in history— this past November, when she became the first openly gay nonin cumbent elected to the U .S. House of Representatives. (Others have come out after their elections to Congress.) She is also the first woman Wisconsin voters have sent to Washington, D.C. The Democrat represents a dis trict that includes the Madison area, the place where she was raised and still lives. She gushes an enthusiasm about the lakes, the hills and peo ple of her home region. “I’m there because I want to be,” she says. Her one stint away was for school. Baldwin ended up at Smith College, situated in Northampton, Mass., a community known for its preponderance of les bians. She came out as a lesbian in her junior year. “My college classmates were wonderful, just completely supportive," she says. Still, Baldwin didn’t tell her family until she returned to Madison to attend law school. “I was a very, very lucky person, both in terms of how old and how mature I was when I came out, and the fact that my friends and fam ily were absolutely amazing,” she says. Acceptance anxiety returned when she ran \V . ii - IV, ' ' '> 'V l ’ I-'-' K ami * L esbian in the H ouse Tammy Baldwin charts new territory with her win as an out lesbian for a county council seat at the age of 24, while she was still in law school. “I remember vividly the night before the first newspaper article was coming out, and being terrified again of what was going to happen,” she recounts. However, the sky did not fall during the eight years she served on the council. by Bob Roehr had just read about her in his morning newspa per. “The remarkable part of what he had to say was, ‘I feel differently about myself today,’ ” she says, adding, “I get emotional every time I think about that because it was the first time I had a glimpse of how powerful the symbolism truly is.... It’s important not to forget those moments.” But Baldwin acknowledges that not every one is pleased by the prospect of a high profile lesbian. “I’m never going to convince those hateful people,” she says. “The people I’m going to reach are our allies and those in the middle.... I think that we will be most successful when we 1W 0* “But the state media made a lot of my election to the state Assem bly [in 19931,” she says. The mainstream press ran sto ries that screamed: “Out Lesbian Elected to the State Legislature,” and “First and Only Openly Gay or Lesbian Per son to be Sworn In." Upon her election to the Legislature, Bald win recalls a poignant phone call from a man who had “a youthful sounding voice that was very shaky.” According to Baldwin, the fellow told her he M.fy. do our best to turn the other cheek and keep on with our work.” Baldwin takes pride in having successfully sponsored a campaign finance reform law while she was a state legislator, as well as having played a part in defeating her state’s equivalent of the Defense of Marriage Act. // U • . \ ' k / \\\u ■ Physician and Surgeon, Obstetrics and Gynecology Health First * 1130 N.W. 22nd Avenue, Suite 320, Portland, OR 97210 229-7538 _____ THE B l IZZAK — the studless snow tire which causes no harm to roads and provides outstanding performance and safety features. Now available at: A U T O B O D Y 2454 E. BURNSIDE PORTLAND, OR 97214 2 3 2 -3 6 0 0 W heel A lignment & T ires I C ollision R epair S pecialists « 1 *1 ,3 VOICE PERSONAL ADS Baldwin offers thanks to her supporters. “W hen I was first elected to the county board in 1 9 8 6 ,1 attended a conference of open ly gay elected and appointed officials. There were 14 of us, including one from Great Britain. Now we are pushing toward 200," she says. “There are not nearly as many glass ceilings to shatter.” Baldwin says the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, founded in 1991, played “an absolutely key role” in making that happen. “They started thinking about what ingredients needed to be in place” in terms of resources, training and skills to help elect openly gay and lesbian candidates at every level of government, she explains. “What we learned...is that the electorate was absolutely ready for candidates who come prepared and well qualified to address their issues,” she says. Baldwin laughs in acknowledging that she was the fund’s “poster child” in 1993, the year she stepped up from the county council to statewide office. And she jokes that with this last election she has become a “second genera tion” poster child for the group. She also credits the Human Rights Cam paign for endorsing her very early in the election cycle, when she was running against other strongly pro-gay candidates in the congressional primary. (H RC lobbyist Kris Pratt is now Bald win’s legislative director.) In the nation’s capital, Baldwin is trying to get to know her new colleagues. She also says her principal legislative goal is “passing a uni versal health care bill {and) making sure that every citizen in this country has access to health care.” She made that mission the centerpiece of her campaign. “But I’m a pragmatist and I know that it is going to take a long time, and that there is a lot of political groundwork that needs to be laid first,” she says. 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