LGBTQ Representation Hits Historic High in Chicago
Nine LGBTQ people will serve on the 50-member City Council, even as the city's lesbian mayor leaves office in defeat.
(Bottom L-R) Ray Lopez, Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth, Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, Lamont Robinson, Rosanna Rodriguez
On Tuesday, April 4, three LGBTQ Chicago City Council candidates won runoff elections, bringing the total number of LGBTQ members on the 50-member body to nine.
Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth, a queer-identified Filipina and small business owner, narrowly defeated affordable housing developer Joe Dunne in an upset in the race for the 48th Ward seat being vacated by retiring Ald. Harry Osterman. With her victory, Manaa-Hopenworth becomes the first out LGBTQ Asian-American elected to the City Council.
Similarly, Illinois State Rep. Lamont Robinson defeated Prentice Butler in the race to replace Ald. Sophia King, who lost her bid for mayor earlier this year, in the city’s 4th Ward.
Robinson is the first out LGBTQ Black man to be elected to the City Council.
The third runoff winner, Timmy Knudsen, originally appointed to the 43rd Ward seat by outgoing Mayor Lori Lightfoot following the retirement of Ald. Michele Smith, narrowly defeated Brian Comer to represent the city’s tony Lincoln Park neighborhood.
Other LGBTQ winners, who avoided runoffs by earning more than 50 percent in the initial round of voting in February, include:
- Jessie Fuentes, queer Latina educator and activist in the Humboldt Park neighborhood, who won the 26th Ward seat
- Bennett Lawson, an aide to former Ald. Tom Tunney, in the 44th Ward, which includes the historic LGBTQ neighborhood of Northalsted, previously known as “Boystown”
- Incumbent Ald. Maria Hadden, of the 49th Ward
- Incumbent Ald. Ray Lopez, of the 15th Ward
- Incumbent Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, of the 35th Ward
- Incumbent Ald. Rosanna Rodriguez, of the 33rd Ward
The increase in LGBTQ representation on the City Council comes at the same time that outgoing Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a lesbian, is leaving office, having been defeated in February’s primary election and failing to garner enough votes to earn a spot in the April runoff.
Lightfoot frequently butted heads with several alderpersons in trying to accomplish her political goals, earning her criticism from both the political Left — who claimed the mayor sold out by failing to advance the progressive agenda she campaigned on four years ago — and the political Right, who saw her as a wild-eyed social liberal who was too “soft on crime” and overly concerned with “woke” virtue-signaling.
Former Houston Mayor Annise Parker, the president and CEO of LGBTQ Victory Fund, celebrated the increase in LGBTQ representation as something of which to be proud — even though, politically, the nine victors are likely to represent different ideological and parochial factions on the historically fractious City Council.
“Tonight’s wins make it clear that Chicago will remain a national leader for LGBTQ+ rights and that at the end of the day, Chicagoans saw through anti-LGBTQ dog whistles and chose exceptional LGBTQ+ leaders because of their qualifications, positive visions for the city and deeply rooted community support,” Parker said in a statement.
“We are confident that under their leadership, Chicago will continue on its path towards increased equity and opportunity for all residents.”
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