Tammy Baldwin

b. February 11, 1962

“There will not be a magic day when we wake up and it’s now O.K. to express ourselves publicly.We make that day by doing things publicly until it’s simply the way things are.”

 A self-proclaimed “forceful supporter of civil rights and those whose voices are not heard,” Baldwin spearheaded efforts to pass inclusive hate crimes legislation and the Employment Non- Discrimination Act (ENDA). 

Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin is the first out lesbian elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. As of 2011, she was one of four openly gay members and the first openly gay non-incumbent elected to Congress. In November 2012, she won election to the US Senate election for Wisconsin. In doing so, she became the first openly lesbian or gay US senator.

Born in Madison, Wisconsin, Baldwin was raised by her mother and maternal grandparents. She graduated from high school at the top of her class and attended Smith College, where she majored in government and mathematics.

In 1986, Baldwin was elected to the Dane County Board of Supervisors, her first public office. During this time, she earned her degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School. After practicing law from 1989 to 1992, she won a seat in the Wisconsin State Assembly.

In 1998, Baldwin was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, making her the first congresswoman from Wisconsin. She was elected to her sixth term in 2008. She serves on the Subcommittee on Health of the Committee of Energy and Commerce and on the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties of the Committee of the Judiciary.

Baldwin is a leading advocate for universal health care, as well as a proponent of renewable fuel sources and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

A self-proclaimed “forceful supporter of civil rights and those whose voices are not heard,” Baldwin spearheaded efforts to pass inclusive hate crimes legislation and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). She has authored legislation that would extend benefits for same-sex partners to federal employees.

Baldwin lives with her partner, Lauren Azar.

Bibliography

• Canon, David T., “First things first: Democrat Tammy Baldwin's Wisconsin win blended professionalism, people power” Campaigns & Elections. 1 May 2009
• Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin’s Official Web site
• Nichols, John. "Tammy Baldwin's Turn." The Nation. 27 May 2009
• "Tammy Baldwin"  Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 27 May 2009

Films

• Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)  
• Outrage (2009) 

Video Clips

• Tammy Baldwin speaks at the University of Wisconsin 
• Rep. Tammy Baldwin on "The Rachel Maddow Show" 
• Tammy Baldwin speaks about coming out at work 
• Tammy Baldwin speaks on the Federal Marriage Amendment 

Websites and Articles

• Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress
• Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin’s Voting Record
• On the Issues: Tammy Baldwin

Related articles

• Is Rep. Tammy Baldwin Still Facing The Violent Threats That Forced Her to De-List Her Home Address? (queerty.com)
• Rep Baldwin Introduces Legislation To Mandate LGBT Health Data (lezgetreal.com)

Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon: Cross-dressing Governor of New York

b. 28 November 1661
d. 31 March 1723

Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon, styled Viscount Cornbury between 1674 and 1709, was Governor of New York and New Jersey between 1701 and 1708, and is perhaps best known for  his cross-dressing while in office.

Cornbury came to be regarded in the historical literature as a moral profligate, sunk in corruption: possibly the worst governor Britain ever imposed on an American colony. The early accounts claim he took bribes and plundered the public treasury. Nineteenth century historian George Bancroft said that Cornbury illustrated the worst form of the English aristocracy's "arrogance, joined to intellectual imbecility". Later historians characterise him as a "degenerate and pervert who is said to have spent half of his time dressed in women's clothes", a "fop and a wastrel". He is said to have delivered a "flowery panegyric on his wife's ears" after which he invited every gentleman present to feel precisely how shell-like they were; to have misappropriated £1500 meant for the defence of New York Harbor, and, scandalously, to have dressed in women's clothing and lurked "behind trees to pounce, shrieking with laughter, on his victims".

Cornbury is reported to have opened the 1702 New York Assembly clad in a hooped gown and an elaborate headdress and carrying a fan, imitative of the style of Queen Anne. When his choice of clothing was questioned, he replied, "You are all very stupid people not to see the propriety of it all. In this place and occasion, I represent a woman (the Queen), and in all respects I ought to represent her as faithfully as I can." It is also said that in August 1707, when his wife Lady Cornbury died, His High Mightiness (as he preferred to be called) attended the funeral again dressed as a woman. It was shortly after this that mounting complaints from colonists prompted the Queen to remove Cornbury from office.

October 18th in Queer History: Martina Navratilova, Tim Gill, Ien Dales, Uzi Even

Born this day

• Martina Navratilova, tennis champion
• Tim Gill, businessman, activist and political donor
• Ien Dales,   Dutch politician and cabinet minister
• Uzi Even,  first openly gay member of the Israeli Knesset 

Sodomy in History, October 18


1954 — David Trago, the elected sheriff of Jackson County, Ohio, is arrested on sodomy charges. He is a religious fundamentalist and the father of 13 children. The first trial ends in his acquittal, but later he is arrested again for attempting to have sex with a teenage male and is convicted and removed from office.

1981 — An Ohio appellate court sustains the libel verdict against Larry Hustler magazine for a satirical cartoon showing his rival, Penthouse publisher Robert Guccione, engaged in a "homosexual act."

1984 — The U.S. Virgin Islands repeals its sodomy law.

Source:
Calendar of Sodomy, October