Julie Johnson makes history as first openly LGBT+ Congress member elected from the South

Julie Johnson has made history as not only the first openly LGBTQ+ person to represent Texas in Congress, but the first to be elected from anywhere in the South of the United States.

The 57-year-old Democratic representative claimed victory in the Lone Star State’s 32nd Congressional District on Tuesday, November 5 – defeating her Republican opponent Darrell Day and Libertarian candidate Kevin Hale. She will succeed outgoing representative, Democrat Colin Allred, who unsuccessfully challenged Ted Cruz for his seat in the Senate.

Johnson celebrated her historic win after the results were called on Tuesday evening. “Tonight, Team Julie made history,” she wrote in a post shared to X/Twitter. “I am incredibly honored and humbled that you have elected me to be your Representative for the 32nd district. Together, we have shattered barriers and proven [sic] that representation matters.”

Throughout her campaign, Johnson – who identifies as lesbian – advocated for reproductive rights and access to safe and legal abortion services, stronger gun laws, increased access to affordable housing, and the decriminalization and legalization of cannabis.

Since January 2019, Johnson has represented District 115 in the Texas state legislature, where she helped kill 141 of the 144 anti-LGBTQ+ bills filed this year alone. She was also one of five openly queer Texas Democrats to form the first LGBT+ caucus in the Texas House of Representatives, and passed a bill regulating prior authorizations for medications that treat autoimmune diseases such as HIV.

Speaking to People, Johnson shared that she came out as gay at age 25 in the 1990s. The former attorney, who’s been married to her wife Susan Moster since 2014, explained how it’s “critically important” to have LGBT+ representation in US Congress, especially when anti-trans legislation and bills attacking the rights of LGBT+ people are constantly being proposed by conservative lawmakers.

“Everybody needs to be represented and have their voice and their perspective in the conversation of our governmental discourse,” Johnson told the outlet. “We all have to have a seat at the table.”

The representative-elect also emphasized how “sick” she is of seeing her community become “a political punching bag” by those who seek to limit the rights of LGBT+ Americans “for their own political gain.”

“I’m not going to tolerate [bigotry] and not going to have it,” she said. “I will call it out.”

Last year, Texas lawmakers introduced more than 140 bills threatening the LGBT+ community – from prohibiting access to gender-affirming care and imprisoning physicians who provide such gender-affirming care, to banning classroom instruction on sexual health and stripping “court-ordered custody rights of parents” who travel out of state to get healthcare services for their transgender child.

In June, the Texas Supreme Court upheld the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth, certifying a law that has been in effect in Texas since September 2023. The ban will continue to prevent trans teens from accessing hormone therapies, puberty blockers, and transition surgeries, though medical experts say such surgical procedures are rarely performed on children.

Republican nominee Donald Trump claimed victory in the presidential election on Tuesday evening, defeating Vice President Kamala Harris for a second term in the White House. Throughout his reelection campaign, Trump has promised to revoke federal policies that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. His campaign has pledged to use the federal government to “stop” gender-affirming healthcare for transgender minors, and he has called gender-affirming care “child abuse” and “child sexual mutilation.”