Openly Gay Former Marine Wins Alabama Seat With 90% of the Vote

Neil Rafferty, an openly gay ex-marine, has won an Alabama seat in a landslide victory, reports Towleroad.

Rafferty won a whopping 90 percent of the vote, securing the District 54 seat from independent candidate Joseph Casper Baker.

Rafferty is an outspoken LGBT+ activist and project directorat the non-profit organisation Birmingham AIDS Outreach. He also served as a marine during the don’t ask don’t tell period.

“I am proud and honoured to have served my country and my fellow Marines, but without the choice to come out, I was back in the closet,” he said about that time.

“After DADT was repealed, the closet slowly fell away. And I began to use pronouns unambiguously in conversations about relationships.

“Coming out is not an event. It’s a process, a shared experience — frightening, challenging, sometimes painful — that defines us as members of the LGBTQ community. Coming out was the crucible in which my identity and my convictions were forged.”

Rafferty posted on Facebook “Thank you Birmingham!” after winning the electing.

“We are better together. Let’s get to work!”

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