BY THE NUMBERS

Democratic Convention To Have Record-Breaking Number Of LGBT Delegates

The upcoming Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC, will include a record-breaking number of openly LGBT delegates, according to the National Stonewall Democrats.

Compiling data on the September 3 powwow, the group says at least 470 out representatives (including 9 trans delegates) will attend, out of nearly 6,000 delegates total.  There’s also an additional 23 openly LGBT alternate delegates, 20 committee members and five pages.

“We’re finally getting to the point where we get closer to appropriate measure of representation as compared to the population at large, although we’re not quite to that point,” says Stonewall director Jerame Davis, who says it was part of an affirmative-action plan devised by the state Democratic parties and signed off on by the DNC.

We’re all for inclusion—and it sounds like the Dems are making that a priority—but we kind of bristle at the idea of using affirmative action to shore up the numbers. They’re not even done tallying the numbers and the queer community already represents some 7.8% of all Democratic delegates—which is higher than our representation in the general population, according to most estimates.

Or maybe we’re just raining on the parade: Do you think it’s a good idea to have LGBT quotas? Vote with your fingers in the comments.

 

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