Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin is gay
glossy The Advocate's “Person of the Year.”
Baldwin, 50, who was sworn in on
Thursday, appears on the magazine's January 4 cover along with the
caption, “LGBT Americans are now represented in both houses of
Congress.”
Indeed, Baldwin is America's first
openly gay senator. She is also Wisconsin's first female senator.
“This has changed me in some way,”
she told The
Advocate. “At every glass ceiling I've broken, I've hoped
that there's the message that goes out so loudly and clearly. This
is a message that we don't have to limit our aspirations in this
society anymore.”
She added that being a lesbian was part
of the experience she brings to the Senate.
“We all know that having a seat at
the table matters on a very substantive level, because each of us
brings our life experiences with us to our jobs,” she said. “It's
not like a coat check where you check your life experience at the
door and walk in and do your job and pick it up on the way out. You
always have that with you, and it informs the way you approach a
debate, the way you decide how to vote, and your participation in the
conversation.”
(Related: Seven
openly LGBT members in 113th Congress.)