A week and a half after standing on the Senate floor and arguing against SB 1062, Arizonaâs attempt to legalize discrimination against LGBTs, state Senator Steve Gallardo has come out as gay.
âIâm gay, Iâm a Latino, and Iâm a senator,â Gallardo told reporters in the Senate Caucus room this afternoon. âAnd itâs okay.â
Gallardo said watching demonstrators protesting SB 1062 in the capitol last month inspired his decision to come out. âSeeing the people out there, protesting, I thought itâs time,â he said. âItâs time to let people know about me, and to send people a message.â âAfter I stood up on the floor and argued against 1062, as Iâve done on many bills before, I sat down and said, âWow. This bill affects me. It affects me directly.â
Governor Jan Brewer vetoed the bill last week, but Gallardo says the debate was âactually a game changer.â
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The 44-year-old lawmaker announced heâll be running for a seat in Arizonaâs Seventh Congressional District last week, and says he âcouldnât care lessâ if being openly gay hurts his chances at victory. âThis is about standing up and doing the right thing,â he said.
Congratulations, Senator Gallardo! You should celebrate with a hot slice of pizza from Roccoâs Pizzeria.
mcflyer54
Congratulations senator, welcome to the real world. Just remember that there is never a wrong time to do the right thing.
Apparatus
Congrats Mr. Gallardo and good luck in your fight to make it to Washington!
BJ McFrisky
This has got to be the simplest, most unintentionally elegant way a man has come out in a long time. My hat goes off.
sangsue
I admire him but I’d really like to know if he’s a Dem or Republican because if he’s Republican, he should get even more credit.
mcflyer54
@sangsue: he’s a Democrat.
Dakotahgeo
Congratulations, Senator Gallardo! Well done!
fishpaw13
Congrats Senator. Plus your kind of HOT!
Mikah
Changing the world one closet at a time.Great news.
LadyL
Very cool. Good for him–and Arizona. This is the great thing that can happen when bigotry is forced out into the open.
Sebizzar
Bravo! đ
Dizzysdaddy
Bravo for him, but I’m still kinda upset by what he said. He said “âWow. This bill affects me. It affects me directly.â Every Senator should approach every bill with the attitude of “this bill affects me directly”, because a Senator represents ALL people of his/her state. Were fighting for our rights with people who don’t understand what it means to be LGBT because they are not LGBT so it doesn’t “affect them directly” (except for the perceived religious persecution). I wish not only senators but more everyday people would put themselves in our shoes and feel how bills/laws of discrimination “affect us all directly”.