*Ritchie Torres, an openly gay Democrat, has made history by becoming the first Afro-Latino LGBTQ person elected to the United States Congress.
Torres won in New York’s 15th district in the Bronx, beating his Republican challenger, Patrick Delices, 88.5% to 11.5%.
“Thank you. Tonight, we made history. It is the honor of a lifetime to represent the essential borough, the Bronx,” he wrote on Twitter following the race call.
Torres continued “Tonight, a new era begins for the South Bronx. It is the honor of a lifetime to represent a borough filled with essential workers who risked their lives so that New York City could live.”
HISTORIC DEM WIN: NYC Council Member Ritchie Torres has been elected to represent the Bronx in Congress. Torres will be the first out Afro Latino LGBTQ+ congressperson in the U.S. after defeating a notoriously homophobic Democratic lawmaker in the primary. pic.twitter.com/h3R0HiMW5Y
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) November 4, 2020
In related news, New Yorker Mondaire Jones has also become the first openly gay Black man elected to Congress. After winning his primary, Jones spoke to CBS about the possibility of making history.
“It is a lot of responsibility,” he said. “I’m happy to be providing that kind of representation for so many young people and older people all throughout my district and all throughout this country who have reached out to me and said, ‘I’m so inspired by what you’re doing. You give me hope and I can be my authentic self in a world filled with so much injustice,’ and it’s really an honor to be able to do that.”
My grandmother used to clean homes in Congers. When daycare was too expensive, she took me with her. Now I get to run to represent the same people whose homes I watched my grandmother clean growing up.
My story, quintessentially, is that of the American Dream. #NY17Votes pic.twitter.com/PyHknx6xvL
— Mondaire Jones (@MondaireJones) November 3, 2020
Torres has previously spoken openly about his mental health issues.
“I think my own acknowledgment of struggling with depression flows naturally from the experience of coming out,” he said in a recent interview with BuzzFeed News. “The process of coming out, the integrity that it demands from you … has taught me how to be more open and honest about my struggle with depression. It teaches you an ethic of radical authenticity.”
Jones and Torres will enter the House in January.
Meanwhile, Sarah McBride, who won Delaware’s state senate seat on Tuesday, also made history as the first transgender state senator in America.
“We did it. We won the general election. Thank you, thank you, thank you,” McBride tweeted on election night. “I hope tonight shows an LGBTQ kid that our democracy is big enough for them, too.”
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