Black Gay Blogger Elected to Maine State House!

Craig Hickman, elected Maine State Representative!

There are so many election results from around the country from Tuesday November 6 that it is taking awhile to catch up on all the good news. Regular readers of this blog will know that I covered the race of the 51st Assembly District of California between my friend (and fellow LGBT activist) Luis Lopez and Jimmie Gomez fairly closely (especially since I live in the district and I tend to support openly LGBT candidates).

However, I just learned that my fellow openly gay, Black blogger Craig Hickman (who created the Craig Hickman's Tennis Blog that I post my Grand Slam predictions to) has been elected to the Maine House of Representatives! Hickman, a 44-year-old Democrat, won with 2,915 votes to 2,057 votes for Republican Scott Davis in the 82nd House District, which covers the towns of Winthrop and Readfield.

Here is a short bio for Hickman:

Hickman is the son of a Tuskegee Airman and a wise woman. He’s also a Harvard graduate, President of the Rotary Club of the Winthrop Area, National Poetry Slam champion, award-winning author, chef, and founder of Craig Hickman’s Tennis Blog. He grows the best collards, tomatoes, okra, beets and butternut squash around. People call his eggs magic. He’ll bring his unparalleled passion for life and his strong, independent voice to Augusta to fight for the people of Maine and move us toward prosperity.

By winning election, Hickman becomes one of the very few Black LGBT people ever elected as a state representative in this country. I know of approximately a half-dozen openly gay, African-Americans who are currently serving as state legislators: Marcus Brandon of North Carolina,  Gordon Fox of Rhode Island, Mary Washington of Maryland and Simone Bell and Keshia Waites of Georgia. Hickman's achievement is even more impressive in that he was not associated with the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, the national organization devoted to promoting and supporting the election of LGBT politicians around the United States.

Jason Bartlett of Connecticut and Rashad Taylor of Georgia used to be state legislators but are no longer in office.

Hat/tip to Tennis Now